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In a landmark decision, the New York courts have overturned a massive penalty against President Trump, originally imposed for alleged property overvaluation. This appeals court ruling marks a significant victory, not only for Trump and his organization but for broader constitutional principles protecting individuals from excessive fines under the Eighth Amendment. As the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) played a pivotal role in this case, we examine how our legal briefs helped shape this major court decision.
SPEAKER 09 :
We got breaking news. New York court wipes out nearly a half a billion dollar penalty against President Trump.
SPEAKER 04 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110.
SPEAKER 09 :
And now your host, Logan Sekulow. Welcome to Sekulow, Will Haynes in studio. My dad, Jay Sekulow, is going to join us in the next segment. I believe we’ll have other guests potentially on later to explain the breaking news that’s happening right now. And look, this is just happening in the last few minutes, and we are starting to go through it ourselves with the ACLJ front and center right involved in this. And of course, the breaking news is the appeals court has thrown out the massive… The massive, nearly half a billion dollar penalty against President Trump. And this was over, Will, what they were calling the overvaluation of properties and all those things. You heard us talk about this over and over and over again. But now there at least is some justice. Now it doesn’t mean it’s over yet, but at least this step is concluded in the ACLJ, as I said, front and center.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right. So this is the case that was before Judge Engeron, which, remember the famous photo op that people made an office meme out of because it was ridiculous. He allowed cameras in his courtroom to come take photos. And then he handed down, there was no jury, this was a bench trial, where he handed down a $400 million judgment, but with penalties and interest, puts it over half a billion dollar penalty against President Trump. It also banned him and his family from running the business of the Trump Organization. And this was Letitia James’ civil fraud case. This was the case where she said that Mar-a-Lago and other assets were overvalued and able to get loans and then that enriched the Trump Organization. The Supreme Court, which is what the lowest court in New York is, handed down this huge penalty, unprecedented penalty against President Trump. Well, today in an appeal at the New York Supreme Court Appellate Division, First Judicial Department, a five judge panel appeared. handed down an opinion which completely wipes out that half a billion dollar penalty they said it violated the eighth amendment of the united states constitution and right there you see the opinion on the front page who is listed as a party to it because we filed in this case making an argument that it’s the american center for law and justice so as we celebrate this 35 years of justice remember Some of these things you may have even forgotten were still going on. These appeals of the lawfare perpetrated against President Trump when he was running for office. Yeah, they’ve just been in the background. We’re still fighting and we’re still getting victories even today.
SPEAKER 09 :
And what that all means, we’ll break down even more. My dad joins us in the next segment. But Will’s right. As we celebrate 35 years of victory, I want you to be a part of it as well. Of course, you can check another box, another victory today. And one that, look, a lot of organizations probably claim victory. Uh, yeah, maybe they are lightly involved, whatever it may be. I mean, they are directly citing us and our briefs here. Okay. We filed briefs in the case, the ACLJ front and center. They are taking not only our point of view into consideration, but really creating the law based upon the ACLJ is incredible work. And I’ve said this the whole time. That’s why we got to have the best, the best people. We cannot be getting the bargain basement lawyers. We can’t be getting a group of people, bad production people. We got to have the best of the best because you can get involved in these cases. You get involved in the highest courts of the land and the highest stakes for people like the president of the United States and get victories. When really, it doesn’t feel like that’s a possibility in 2025 often. But because of you, because of members like you, champions like you, people who support the ACLJ on a monthly basis, it can happen. We are in the final 10 days, as Will said, of our 35 years of victory drive. And today, of course, check another major victory in that box. We gotta continue these fights and we’re gonna continue winning. We need your support. I want you to have your gifts doubled today at aclj.org slash victory. Scan that QR code right now you see on your screen. We’ve been battling weaponization of government against President Trump and anybody for years. And now we are finally getting the results we were hoping for. So right now, if you’re able, become an ACLJ champion. That’s someone that gives on a monthly basis, automatically, like a membership. And it helps support our work all year long. And the first donation you make it, if you make it today, will be effectively doubled. Another champion will match your donation today. So again, scan the QR code or just go to aclj.org. Any donation made, doubled. We’ll be right back with my dad, Jay Sekulow. Welcome back to Secular. My dad, Jay Secular, is joining us right now. Will, let’s give like a very brief rundown of what just happened as this New York court has decided to wipe out nearly a half a billion dollars in penalties against President Trump. But also the ACLJ is directly involved. Dad, I want to get your thoughts after this. We’ll set this up and then I want to get your thoughts. And again, how the ACLJ was involved more than we ever even could imagine, I feel like, in the decision making process.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right. This was this case that Letitia James had brought against former President Trump at the time, running for president at the time as well, where she brought this civil fraud statute against the president saying overvalued real estate and things of that nature to get money. Better, more favorable terms with banks on loans and therefore enriching himself that way in the organization. Today, a five judge panel with the New York appellate division, the Supreme Court appellate division has thrown out. that what was $400 million fine and penalty against him, which with interest was over half a billion dollars. And your ACLJ was fighting front and center on this, even on the front of the opinion, as well as quoted and cited by one of the justices in the opinion as well. So we want to go to your dad, Jay Sekulow. Now, what’s your take on this? How big a deal is this that we’re seeing it today?
SPEAKER 09 :
Let’s try to reconnect with him. We’re having some connection issues that we’ll call you right back. Let me just give it a few seconds. Thankfully, we know that you didn’t mean to do that. We’re not trying to get out of an interview. We’re trying to get out of content. So give us 10 seconds. Everybody will reconnect with him. Make sure that it’s crystal clear. Because when the ACLJ is involved at such a high level, again, being quoted, being cited, it is really impressive. It is something that we can wake up, look at it, and go, wow, that is what this organization is a part of. There we are, front and center, involved in some of the highest courts in the land with the highest level of stakes and clients that you can imagine. And of course, that doesn’t even touch on what we do worldwide. It doesn’t touch on what we do with the persecuted Christians around the world. But again, it’s not that it’s any more important to represent the president of the United States as it is to represent you. Maybe as your kids are going back to school, maybe they’re having some issues with their school and wanting to practice their faith the way they feel. I’m going to check here in just a minute to see if we have them. All right, Dad, you’re back on. Let’s give it a shot here. What are your thoughts?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I think, first of all, it’s very significant because it eliminated what was clearly an excessive fine. It violated the Eighth Amendment. What you and Will have been talking about in the first segment is correct. The ACLJ played a pivotal role here. We were at a brief. that argued that allowing that judgment to stand, that Letitia James brought this suit, that allowing it to stand would in fact violate the Constitution, would also inhibit free speech and political discourse. And what is, I think, very significant here is Judge Friedman, in his opinion, writes that it quotes, not just references our brief, but quotes our brief. We said the statute provides a license for the Attorney General to pursue anyone based on an alleged inaccuracy and regardless of whether anyone has been harmed, just as she did here. And then it said, by removing the inherent protections of traditional fraud law, Section 63 enables political opponents to be prosecuted under a regime of strict liability, regardless of any actual culpability or mental state. The mental state is intent to commit a civil fraud. So Judge Freeman cites our brief in the case, and I want to underscore the importance of this. When we talk about an amicus brief, some people say, well, what is that exactly? Amicus stands for friend of the court. We had standing to file a brief in the case as a friend of the court, and our briefs, as amicus briefs have been cited not only by appellate courts and federal appellate courts and state appellate courts, but we’ve been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court as an amicus. So this is a huge win. But the deterrent effect of political activity and investment in New York City, a lot of businesses left New York because of their concerns about what happened to President Trump. And these are not necessarily people that had any political action to grind. It was just They were concerned about doing business in a state where they could do something like this. Now, there’s going to be an appeal here to the next level. This was the appellate division, which is the intermediate appellate court. It will now go to the Court of Appeals. And I will assure everyone that’s listening right now that the American Center for Law and Justice is going to be front and center. We spent a lot of time on this brief and to work it out. And the reality is this is a big win, but we need the next step here, which is two of the justices would have voted to dismiss the entire matter. And I think at the appeals court at the next level, we’re going to win that aspect too. But those fines are gone.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and that’s one thing I wanted to ask you about as well. Knowing that the office of Letitia James will still try to make sure that this judgment against him, regardless of the fines being wiped out, stands. This was one of her key achievements as attorney general of the state of New York. But as we look at that next level, knowing already that there are some of these justices in the appellate division that think that the entire charge should have been dismissed. And knowing that our rationale was used by one of those justices on this appellate division, does that give one more gumption behind our fight as we take this forward that it could be total vindication by even having this completely wiped from the books?
SPEAKER 03 :
I think there’s a real we have a real chance of that. I mean, I’m optimistic. I mean, first of all, the getting those civil penalties, which were draconian, to say the least, out of the way is is a huge win. The next phase will be this injunction that they put in place, which puts some restrictions on how the Trump organization does business. You know, we’ve been involved in these cases from the outset, but I want to underscore something here. logan that you said right before the break and that is you look at the work of the american center for law and justice we’re talking about 35 years of victory here’s one where we’re defending the constitution of the united states and the president of the united states and we are successful and the reality is what’s at stake is the ability of american citizens to do business to engage in free speech without this kind of retaliation. And the fact that Art Brief got cited is huge.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, absolutely. I think that, I mean, I guess you’re expecting it in the sense of you put a lot of hard work in it. But when you see it sort of up front and center and you see not only ACLJ listed, but direct quotes and sites happening, you know that we are putting together a team that can really impact the world. And I think that’s always something, Dad, we want to pitch and always something I talk about here, which is I want to bring in the best of the best. We want to make sure we’re the best lawyers. We want to make sure we’re the best media broadcasting team because we can’t do it without them. And if you don’t, you don’t have this level of success. And I think that’s what proves when you have 35 years of victory, it’s not just a catchphrase. It is something that is true and honest. Sure. Are there wins and losses along the way? Of course there are. But the mass majority of what we have done has been securing victories for everyone from what you consider, I guess, to be a child in an elementary school all the way up to the president of the United States. That’s exactly correct.
SPEAKER 03 :
And all of those cases are equally important to our teams. And I want to thank our ACLJ members, especially our ACLJ champions, but also our ACLJ members. for supporting us to allowing us to do this kind of work i remember working on this brief it’s been a while i mean this this case took a long time to get decided and the reality is we had the same team on this brief that was on our supreme court team so it was those same lawyers even though this was at an intermediate appellate court but the idea that we have not only obtained a victory but then get a citation in the opinion itself that talks about the negative impact, the deterrent effect on political activity and investment by this case, and then cites our brief. I mean, Logan, this is huge. I mean, I hope that everyone that’s listening to broadcast or watching understands is that the reality is our brief gets cited. So then ask yourself this question. What if that brief wasn’t filed? So that’s what you’ve got to realize. I mean, you know, the courts can do so much, but that’s why these briefs are so important. There are organizations that just do amicus briefs. Now, we do a lot more than that, but, I mean, because it’s that important.
SPEAKER 09 :
I think that’s good to show people because I think you’ll hear that a lot of times. People do think of it maybe as a throwaway item. They think of, oh, amicus briefs, they’re not really directly involved. They’re just kind of getting involved in a way that they can see fit and they can fundraise on and all that. But here’s the proof. Here’s the proof maybe to the biggest extent that that is not the case. A hundred percent.
SPEAKER 03 :
You’re cited by a court on a case that has huge ramifications for the Constitution, the Eighth Amendment, the First Amendment and and the ability of people to do business. And then, of course, the presidency itself. So what you have here is. I think this is like the perfect example of why it’s important for us to continue to do this. And I want to ask everybody that’s listening today, if you are able to support the work of the American Center for Law and Justice, do it. We’ve got a great team. We’ve recruited great young lawyers. We’re developing a whole program to go forward. You’re doing that on the media side as well. And again, I think this shows the synergy of everything of the ACLJ impacting from the president’s the United States slogan, as you said, all the way down to a school board hearing. That’s right. We’re there.
SPEAKER 09 :
Thank you so much for joining us, Dad. I’m sure we’ll have you on later in the week. This is always an important time at the ACLJ. These summer months, as we head into the fall, as school starts back, I know for a lot of us parents, there’s the good and the bad of school starting back. Some of it is you don’t even know what you’re going to put your kid into. You’re not there with them 24 hours a day. You’re not there with them in their classroom. And you don’t know what kind of issues they’re going to get involved in. They may come home and say, Mom, Dad, here’s what happened. And they feel that their beliefs, their religious beliefs, their First Amendment beliefs were squashed. We want to be there for you. So if you have those issues right now, I want you to go to ACLJ.org slash help. But again, if you want to support people that do have those issues at absolutely no cost to them, that’s why we have this. Become an ACLJ supporter. Become an ACLJ champion. Do it today. Immensely important. We’ll be right back. I do want to hear from you, and there are a lot of you watching right now, so we’re actually going to stick on this topic. We’ll talk a little bit more about Tulsi Gabbard and some of the news that came out of that as well. That was what the topic was going to be before the breaking news item happened at the beginning of the show. We’re going to reset that so you understand where we’re at, where our ACLJ team is at, and all of it. But I would love to hear from you. With 4,000 watching on YouTube alone, I would encourage you right now, first thing, I’m going to ask you to do a couple things. First thing, hit that thumbs up. You know how easy that is? Just hit that little thumbs up and that gets it into so many more people’s feeds. About 800 of you have done it right now. Let’s get that number higher. If you haven’t subscribed, I’m going to ask you to subscribe. Again, it’s free. 4,000 plus of you are watching right now. I bet half of you have never even seen my face before. We do this show each and every day from 12 to 1 p.m. Eastern time. And of course, later on, you can find us archived every day, Monday through Friday. Now with that, I’m going to ask you to do one more thing. If you haven’t done those two things, give me a call. I want to hear your voice at 1-800-684-3110. I know a lot of you are tuning in to hear the breaking news, but I want your feedback on this. What do you think? Do you think the law got it right? Do you think they got it wrong? You can be on either side of this. I’m okay with it. Let’s just discuss it. Let’s talk it out. But Will, I guess maybe we need to reset a little bit.
SPEAKER 05 :
that’s right and i think we should reset it by starting where uh the this entire thing started and that was with leticia james the attorney general of new york brought a civil fraud case against president trump and his trump organization family members etc and here’s what she tweeted or uh or posted on x when i wasn’t going to correct you when they got the judgment against president trump when that on that bench trial when the judge um said you’re liable for this and we have that graphic throw it up for everyone leticia james just tweeted the number of the judgment $464,576,230.62. My favorite Ritz song. No other context but that. That was the judgment put against them. And obviously, everyone said this is absurd. This is a historically high number. And then with interest, it was over half a billion dollars. Well… This went to appeal in what we see today because we kept fighting in that span since February 23rd of 2024 to today. A lot of people forgot about it. There was an election. President Trump won. I do think people think almost those things get wiped out. And many of the criminal cases did go away. However, this did not. This was already a conviction in this civil case. And we now see that this five-judge panel at the Appellate Division in New York, this is state court, remember, has overturned and gotten rid of that absurd judgment against the president. The ACLJ filed in this case. We were cited by one of the justices who wanted the entire thing closed. thrown out. He agreed with get rid of that, but this entire case should be gone. And I’m going to read one portion of this justice in his concurring in part and dissenting in part, really taking up, he later quotes us directly from our brief, but really taking up the argument that this was political lawfare against the president, something we had been saying the whole time. And he says, this action essentially turns section 6312 on its head. The leniency with which the courts have construed the requirement for pleading and proving fraud under Section 63, a leniency that has extended for the purpose of facilitating the use under provision to prevent the exploitation of unsophisticated customers, investors, and small businesses, is here being used by Attorney General Letitia James to apply Section 63 to a scenario to which the provision has never before been applied or even thought to apply.” So he’s saying the attorney general being able to bring these actions in this case is meant for a specific purpose. It’s meant to be to stop people from being exploited by businesses, banks, whatever, on unsophisticated customers, consumers, investors, etc. They don’t have the resources. They’re not savvy enough to understand the complexities of a fraud that’s being brought upon them. Then he goes further and says the attorney general in this case has utilized the flexibility afforded to her under this section to unwind complex financial transactions that were negotiated face to face and at arm’s length between a privately held real estate organization and ultra sophisticated banks, insurance companies, government entities, which were well advised by equally sophisticated lawyers, accountants, and other business professionals.
SPEAKER 09 :
essentially saying issued a complaint right never had a problem with any of this uh this was all made up they’ve said that the president and his organizations never missed a payment never did had any issues with the financial side of this uh if there was a crime that you would say uh is uh what do they call that like a meaningless crime a harmless crime right victimless victimless crime this would be it which is a bank says yes here’s a loan and they repay that loan successfully.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right, they keep saying that the Trump organization enriched themselves by this fraud. You know who else made a lot of money off that? The banks that did business with him. There wasn’t a true victim. They were trying to restore the public trust, et cetera, through using this. However, this judge, and I think that’s once again where your dad was talking about, it bodes well for the future of this case because getting this entirely wiped free We know the reason she did this. It was a politically motivated attack on the president. And he lays it out there. We laid it out there in our brief. And also, the majority of this court agreed that this is absurd, what they handed down against him. Over half a billion dollars, unprecedented. The way this law was used was unprecedented. All of it shows what we said from the beginning. It was lawfare to try and take down President Trump. It was not trying to do something for the goodwill of the state of New York under this Attorney General. And you know what? She has her own problems now with lying on loan documents alleged that are being investigated. As they always say, when they accuse you of doing something, when the left accuses you of doing something, they’re probably doing that actually themselves.
SPEAKER 09 :
That’s right. You know what else is absurd, Will? We got probably the biggest amount of people watching this week right now live. So it’s great. It’s breaking news. You know what’s also absurd, though? We got six open phone lines, people here, okay? No one’s got anything to say. Maybe you’re just taking it all in. I understand that. These are big words. Will says big words. Sometimes you got to Google them. That’s what I’m doing over here. If you’re like, Logan’s been quiet for a while, it’s because I’ve been Googling some of the big words. But you can call in. I would love to hear from you because we are heading into the second half hour. Not all the local radio stations get it. If you’re on YouTube, stay around. You’re not going anywhere. By the way, 1,000 plus if you’d hit that thumbs up. I appreciate that. If you haven’t yet, please do it. If you’re brand new to the broadcast, you can also subscribe. We do this show each and every day for a full hour, plus a lot of extra content from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. Eastern time. Now, of course, you can work your way back. And, of course, you can catch us later on podcasts and archived. Our phone lines are starting to light up. There you go. You know what? Maybe I encouraged you. But as we head into this second half hour, we take a very short break. So as I start to talk about this, I want you to work with the ACLJ. I want you to be part of this team. And you can do that by donating and supporting, especially right now during 35 years of victory. And of course, we are celebrating what is a big victory today. Just check another huge box. This one for the President of the United States. Where the ACLJ not only just filed, quoted, Part of it. Go read the opinion. You’ll see us all over it. It’s because we have the best of the best working at this. So celebrate them. Do it for them. Do it for that legal team today. If you want to celebrate, of course you love this show. Great. You love what we do here. Awesome. Celebrate that specific legal team today. But when you make a donation, I’ll make sure they know. That is because of this today. Because of the work of the ACLJ, what we’re able to accomplish. Years-long battles that get successfully resolved. So I encourage you today, as donations are doubled through the rest of the month, which is only 10 days, do it right now at ACLJ.org or scan the QR code. Last time you can do it is the end of the month. And then there’s going to be a long time before you can do it again and have it doubled. So right now, do it back in less than a minute.
SPEAKER 04 :
keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 09 :
Welcome back to Sekulow. Phone lines are completely lit up right now. I’m sure some won’t make it at 1-800-684-3110. As we need to reset, because I know a lot of you just tuned in at the half an hour mark. So, Will, let’s go over this. This is obviously a big moment as the court not only drops the penalty, that penalty for President Trump cresting half a billion dollars. This is a moment we’ve got to make sure that we talk about, we discuss, we break down, because… The ACLJ was directly involved in this. Of course, we’re talking about the lawsuit. They talked about the overvaluation of properties and so on. Again, you may have thought this was long finished. You may have thought, well, he’s the president of the United States. All of those things got wiped away. No, there are certain part of these cases that are still ongoing. And this is a big kind of slap to the face to anyone who thought this had some legs.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right. So an appeals court in New York has now thrown out the more than $500 million penalty against President Trump, his company, his family, that the court ruled was an excessive fine that violated the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution. This is important. This is a big deal. They ruled that this was excessive under the plain text of the Constitution. And what we have seen is that this case that the ACLJ filed in and were cited in by one of the judges is now a vindication that we knew Letitia James. was running for attorney general of the state of New York to get Trump, to go after him. She said it. That was all of her rhetoric, running for the attorney general. That was her campaign. And then what did she do? She did exactly what she promised the voters. I mean, if you got to hand it to her, many politicians don’t actually live up to their campaign promises. She did. She perpetrated a lawfare against the then former president of the United States, now current president of the United States, by going after him. Having this giant penalty awarded against the president of the United States’ company, and that has now been thrown out. It was unconstitutional what was levied against the president. And while we… And emotional. We do know that this isn’t over. There will be further appeals. But we know that two of the judges on this panel thought the entire case should have been thrown out. That judgment against him, the conviction in the civil case of a fraud, still stands as of today. However, that entire $500 million penalty is taken away. We know that it’s not over and will continue to fight. And the ACLJ will continue to fight. But remember, when we say we were cited here at the ACLJ, our lawyers did that hard work and put that brief together and filed it. But also, that’s you. That is you that supports us. You are a part of this. You are a member of the ACLJ. So when we fight back, we can’t do it without you. But we can only do it because of you.
SPEAKER 09 :
That’s right. Of course, no clients even get charged. And of course, that’s from the student who needs their help all the way to the President of the United States in terms of these kind of situations where the ACLJ gets involved directly. The ACLJ, by the way, has been around for 35 plus years. We say 35 years of justice, 35 years of victory. That’s because we were celebrating on paper when it started. I can even tell you as someone that grew up on it, someone who sat there, stuffed the envelopes in the newsletters, that it’s been going on even way before then, the way that my family has been involved in these issues. But formally, the ACLJ has been involved for the last 35 years. It’s been a wonderful time. And it’s been so great to see all the laws and all the media we’re able to do and impact, including even today, because of that 35 years of experience. Because of the fact the ACLJ has been around so long and that you have been a part of that journey. If you’ve never been a part of the journey, by the way, you can be today, as Will said. All you got to do is make a donation, support the work of the ACLJ, become an ACLJ champion. And with that also, a little perk that I give you is you get bumped to the front of the line. So Warren, stay on hold. You’ll be the first one up because you’re an ACLJ champion. And that means you say, hey, I want to join in. I want to give monthly on a recurring basis, create an incredible baseline for this team to move forward. And again, all donations today are doubled. And I’m saying that today, because it is that 35 years of victory, we’re doing this in celebration of that legal team that was put together for this specific case. Because, well, look at the impact that can be made. So celebrate them. We did it for media a few weeks ago for my team here. Let’s celebrate those group. They really could you. Everyone wants to be told they did a good job. Well, So hopefully they feel it after today. Feel the love. That’s at ACLJ.org. When we get back, we’re going to take some calls and comments and continue on this discussion. Maybe we’ll throw out a couple other news topics, but I don’t know. There’s so many of you watching right now. It’s maybe where we stay. We’ll be right back. They’re completely full. Look at that. Well, when you shame them into calling, they call in. Let’s start, though, kicking off. Let’s go to Warren, who’s calling, who, again, is an ACLJ champion, someone that gives on a monthly recurring basis, someone that says, I’m staying with the ACLJ. I want to set it and forget it, if you will. Let’s go to Warren. Warren, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 11 :
Thanks, guys, for taking my call. Yeah, we couldn’t have six open lines, so definitely got shamed into it, but… I just think it’s awesome with Letitia James and all that she did in this judgment that God is so true. He said he won’t be mocked, and whatsoever a person sows, that will they reap. And don’t judge, because the same thing you’re judging, you’re guilty of, and deceit. What they’re finding out that she did in this lawfare, I just think it’s fantastic. And the judgment and your guys’ help in the whole thing with the amicus brief is awesome.
SPEAKER 09 :
Thank you so much, Warren. And I feel like names like Letitia James and some of those are ones that I kind of was hoping we’d ever would have to say again. But sometimes we get to say them on a good day.
SPEAKER 05 :
In a good way. Right. Yeah. Warren. Not for them. Well, obviously. Yeah. This was kind of the the pinnacle of her career as the attorney general of New York. This is what she ran on and she was able to pull off. And now that huge judgment, that unprecedented judgment is wiped out. Something that she was so proud of. is gone and and that’s another issue that when you think about not only was the judgment uh unprecedented but the way that this law was used this flexibility that allowed the attorney general to go after businesses that may be fraudulently engaged in in activities with consumers and everything it’s a consumer protection angle so the attorney general trying to keep the public trust but what everyone argued from the beginning And even the banks that testified, it’s like there was no fraud here. There wasn’t a, we aren’t victims. The loans were repaid. We continue to do business with this organization, but yet they still had to go there. It looked like a show trial, the way cameras were brought in at the very beginning of it in order to showcase what was going on. The judge there loved his 15 minutes of fame because most people nationally and around the world aren’t talking about A lower court judge in the state of New York. But we’ve seen that all that has been undone and the lawfare failed because President Trump was reelected. And it also failed because you’re seeing that weaponizing the law doesn’t end well. And that’s the other key takeaway here. These aren’t just important for President Trump. These are important for every American that our system of laws is protected and upheld and that our Constitution remains strong and that state attorneys general don’t get to run around and violate people’s constitutional rights just because they don’t like them politically.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, absolutely. Look, there’s a lot of calls coming in right now. I want to share. I hold some of them for the next segment as well. But as you see, when someone hangs up, opens up a free line. So we got one line open right now. Let’s go, though, to Martin. Martin in North Carolina watching on YouTube. Martin, go ahead.
SPEAKER 06 :
Good morning, everybody. I want to have one quick thing to it. Warren, I appreciate that. Remember, don’t think so highly of yourself. God walks out in due season now. From the brief that your father had said, something that brought a question in the comments you made, Jordan, and well kind of clarified what I wanted to ask. We know that when you go to a bank, that appraisals are subjective. And everybody agrees who is the victim. But when you lie on a federal application as what Ms. James is being accused of, Would the victim be the banks because they’re not making the money they should based on the information they were given? Would they be the victims?
SPEAKER 09 :
In theory, yes, I believe so.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and specifically here, the attorney general tried to use a this is a public interest in pursuing this case to kind of. and ensure that the trust in the way that business is run is able to be upheld. And that’s the theory that she went on. She wasn’t even claiming the banks were victims there. In her case, yes, there is an argument that when you, one, it’s just a crime to lie on mortgage documents that is statutorily put forward. But yeah, the victim would be a bank because if you’re getting more favorable loan term… Maybe some of those papers decide and feel like they’re trying to trick you. Yeah, right. But it’s like if you’re… Then you’re maybe getting a lower rate than you would. So the bank is losing money. But also, if you’re getting a loan that maybe should have gone to someone else because banks only have a finite amount of money that they can lend out. So there are different ways to look at it. But when you’re also talking about a mortgage, it’s a much smaller…
SPEAKER 09 :
level of of potential uh there’s a lot more competitors for that rather than a highly sophisticated business loan there there truly were no victims in that yeah all right thank you so much martin for calling again we got some lines open now at 1-800-684-3110 as i’d love to hear from you let’s see a couple more i guess we should might as well because so many of you have called in about this topic uh let’s go to john uh john is watching on pluto tv i assume that’s on the salem news channel likely we’re also on live uh john go ahead Thank you for taking my call.
SPEAKER 10 :
And not only your program, but your panel. Look at the awareness of the Americans, you know, and I have to say hooray for everyone out there. The funny thing is, Trump has cut through it all. But I see one obstacle that we’re all facing. When you’re dealing with people like this, you know, the Letitia James, you know, go down the list. There’s a hundred of them. There’s a thousand of them. um within our constitution uh with them you know just dissecting it to way they want to fit and then erase the whole idea of our our america um that falls into the category of treason so i’m suggesting the task yeah john i i think that that is something that look the the treason word
SPEAKER 09 :
I would say until apparently recently was being thrown around a little too willy nilly or sometimes wasn’t being thrown around at all in legitimate course. Now we’ve seen with even some of the moves and we can even talk about what Tulsi Gabbard’s been doing. Uh, those have become a bit more consistent. Now, I’m not sure if this would be considered treason. I feel like that’s going a little far when you’re talking about really a business, even though her role was to take down essentially the president of the United States. Um, I think you get into a hairy area. I want to make sure that we don’t end up biting you in return.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and I think, once again, as you say, you have to be careful how far you go sometimes. Like with the impeachment against President Trump. They lowered the bar for impeachment in perpetuity. The Democrats did because they impeached him over essentially nothing. We know the impeachment trial all too well here.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, and the Republicans have…
SPEAKER 05 :
um during the biden era they teased it a lot right and then never went forward because i was hopeful that really that was a fringe group who understood that this was a a pathway that was not a good idea but uh john to your point and i agree with you logan i don’t think that the lawfare that leticia james did was per se treason especially when you read the text of uh what treason is defined by the constitution but i would lean more towards what Tulsi Gabbard has said, a treasonous conspiracy, when it was directed by heads of government to manipulate intelligence and things in order to wipe out the ingoing president who had been elected at that point, the president-elect, to try and effectively either get him out of office or get an indictment against him. uh as adam schiff was trying to do those things are more treasonous that is trying to unseat the head of the united states government using lies manipulations and weaponization of intelligence i want to keep taking calls in the next segment but i think this is a good one to take us into that final segment that’s michelle in california who is an aclj champion because look
SPEAKER 09 :
You need organizations like us to exist. And I truly believe that. I’m not just saying that because obviously I’m here. I’m one of the spokespeople for the organization. I’m here doing this show each and every day. But know that I find it incredibly important. When we hear these wins, it brings a smile to a lot of our faces here. It’s 35 years of victory. Isn’t just a slogan. It’s reality. Michelle, go ahead.
SPEAKER 07 :
Hi, thank you. So first of all, I want to say I am so honored to be a part of an organization that fights for good and righteousness, which you guys do. My question is, how does this case even come to fruition? Because Trump has no say in the valuation of his property. That is why the bank needs an official appraisal. So wouldn’t that entity be the responsible party?
SPEAKER 09 :
There was some information where, you know, there was property stated values, though.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right, exactly. And even the banks in the case were saying, you know, obviously there’s dispute over the valuation. I mean, they were throwing out numbers like Mar-a-Lago is worth $10 million, which was like, this is a monster resort. And at the end of the day, though, the bank was even testifying like this didn’t change at the end of the day if it were this or this, us giving the loan. That is why it was so egregious that they went forward with this and then secured through the judge. Because remember, it wasn’t a jury trial. It was a bench trial where the judge was the one who found the Trump organization guilty. So, Michelle, once again, the whole thing was not on the up and up from the beginning.
SPEAKER 09 :
Right. Thank you, Michelle, for calling. I appreciate you being an ACLJ champion, a supporter that gives on a monthly basis. That does open up three lines, so it’s time to call in. 1-800-684-3110. These have been some excellent calls. I really love hearing from you. Even if it’s just a message of support, that’s totally fine. We are in that final 10 days of our 35 years of victory drive where all donations are doubled. That means another ACLJ champion or member, someone like our last caller or some of the other champions have called in and said, hey, I’m going to unlock a donation. I’m going to do that and match any donation that comes into a certain level. Of course, that donation level is very, very high. So do it right now. Give what you can, if you can. If your first donation is doubled, even if you become a champion, so you become a champion on a $20 level, that first month becomes effectively $40. We appreciate that. We’ll be right back with more on Sekiro and your calls. Welcome back to Sekulow. We do have two lines still open at 1-800-684-3110. Perfect time to call in as we wrap up this hour of broadcasting. Thank you so much for all of you who joined us. All the brand new viewers, by the way, who we can see on YouTube and on Rumble, all the social media outlets. We know when we see numbers like that we have today that a lot of you have never seen us before. If you’ve never seen us before, I’m not asking you to donate. I’m asking you actually just to subscribe. Be a part of the 515,000 plus strong subscribers to this channel. It means a lot to us and it means a lot to get the message out there. So do that if you can. If you’re brand new, that’s what I ask you to do. If you’ve enjoyed this broadcast, if you enjoy the legal work we do, make a donation of any kind, and I would appreciate that. It could be $5, it could be $5,000. You could do it today, and that donation is effectively doubled. Another ACLJ person, champion, donor, member is ready to unlock their pledge. With that, I want to take some calls. Let’s go to Jay, who’s calling in Virginia, who is watching on YouTube. Jay, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 13 :
Thank you. You mentioned that Letitia James brought this in the public interest. And it seems to me the victims in this case are not only the Trumps, but the law itself and the American people, i.e. the public interest. From a layperson’s perspective, is there no, I don’t know if to use the word properly or not, remedy against the Tisha James and Judge, I call him Erdogan. I don’t know if that’s the correct pronunciation or if that’s the guy in Turkey. They behave the same way.
SPEAKER 05 :
That is the Turkish president, Erdogan. This is Ingeron. Ingeron, yeah.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, they could be related. Yeah. I think they violated the public trust, and I’ve got to believe, I’ve got to hope that they violated some sort of law, because if they haven’t, then God help us, literally and figuratively.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, Jay, we know there’s other cases that are pending with some of them, but this specific instance, Will, I know you guys can see.
SPEAKER 05 :
that is why uh and what your dad said earlier we have to fight at the next stage of this because what this court found was that the the disgorgement as they call it of the funds that is the 500 million dollars uh that in and of itself violated the eighth amendment of excessive fines they still upheld the that she her bringing this and the conviction of the fraud they still upheld that that that exists in this situation uh so that still needs to be appealed we need to get that completely wiped off the books the uh the actual penalty was resolved not the crime exactly and that’s what some of these justices in this case had said we think the whole thing should be thrown out if that if all of them if the majority which would have had to have been three i think they were only one away from getting there of getting the whole thing thrown out that would be a different conversation but right now we still have a fight ahead so it is a big victory
SPEAKER 09 :
But there is still stages to this. All right, let’s continue on. Elizabeth is an ACLJ champion, which means she gets bumped up to the front. Elizabeth, go ahead. Florida.
SPEAKER 01 :
Hello, Jordan. Hello, everybody. How’s it going? Are we excited?
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, it’s been a good day. Elizabeth, go ahead.
SPEAKER 01 :
I am so excited. I just wanted to call in and say I want to double my monthly giving.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, thank you so much, Elizabeth. We appreciate that. Of course, you need to go ahead and do that either online or by calling our member services to actually get that taken care of. But we do appreciate.
SPEAKER 01 :
They gave me the number. And I also wanted to say that what they did to President Trump and even while he was out of office, they did it. I feel like it happened to me personally. And that’s why I want to help ACLG fight. in every conceivable area of injustice. And thank you, and God bless you.
SPEAKER 09 :
Thank you, Elizabeth. We appreciate it. And again, appreciate you becoming an ACLJ champion. Like you said, wanted to double your efforts, which I appreciate that as well. That’s obviously someone that gives on a monthly recurring basis. Their donation is essentially automatically charged. Of course, you cancel any time like any other sort of membership program or whatever it may be. But with that, your first time you become an ACLJ champion, your donation is doubled. So we appreciate that, Elizabeth. We’re going to take more calls and comments. They have all piled in here in the last half hour. know we appreciate it. I always love hearing from you. You’re the most important voice in the room. We can have some of the leading experts on all these topics, but it’s always good to hear from the American people. Honestly, not even just the American people. Thanks to our worldwide impact, we’re able to hear from people all over the globe. It’s really wild to see the amount of people that watch overseas, who listen overseas. And now even there are new options that are going to be coming where you’ll be able to watch us potentially in other languages that should be rolling out here soon. sooner than later so that’s a really cool thing that the aclj will be able to do here because we know if you’ve ever visited europe or the uk recently in recent history guess what the number one story is mostly president trump of the united states of america so we can get this message out there globally but we can’t do that without your support of course that’s at aclj.org aclj.org do it today let’s continue on let’s go to tom who’s calling in new york tom you’re on the air
SPEAKER 12 :
All right. Thank you, guys. Appreciate all your time on all these things to talk about. Actually, it’s Western New York. It’s a red county. So I got that going for me. There you go.
SPEAKER 09 :
Don’t let them redraw that for you.
SPEAKER 12 :
Go ahead. I’ll do everything I can. So my question is, you know, all these sightings and briefs and everything for the change to the amount for President Trump or Trump. Is there any way that that law can be changed in New York State based upon these briefs?
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and that is part of what the conversation of some of the and I say conversation, some of the opinion or concurrence or dissent from some of these other justices were, is that they were going way beyond. They were taking a lot of liberties with how they were applying this part of the executive law of New York, specifically Section 6312. that they were taking a lot of liberties. So if we can then get to the next stage and even have this thrown out, the precedent set could limit that. But I don’t think that the state of New York, unfortunately, even though you’re in a more red part of the state, I don’t know that the General Assembly of New York and the governor would try to put limits on something like this.
SPEAKER 01 :
Certain areas that have a lot of populace.
SPEAKER 05 :
Exactly. So I think the way that changes could be made would be through precedent if this is able to be overturned later as the appeal on the judgment itself continues on.
SPEAKER 09 :
All right, thank you so much for calling, Tom. We appreciate it. I’m going to try to get to at least one more call. Of course, we’ve got to jump up to Cambria, who’s calling Utah. This is an ACLJ champion. Go ahead. I didn’t even read your comment. I just saw champion said, get on the air. You only got about a minute.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay, question. I’d just like to be reminded of how many appeals They could actually go through, if there is a limit, because I could see this dragging on for 20 years or something.
SPEAKER 09 :
It could go on for years and years, Cambria. That’s not something to laugh at.
SPEAKER 05 :
Of course, it’s already gone on for years. Well, that’s the other side of this, is that there could be appeals to different parts, to different rulings. So I don’t have a total number, but we do know that there are more steps that we can take, and we will, here at the ACLJ.
SPEAKER 09 :
Thank you, Cambria, for calling. John, unfortunately, I just don’t think… I have an answer for him, though. Okay, John, quickly. Let’s just put John in Maryland. You got like 10 seconds. Ask your question.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, I was just wondering, with the 34 conviction of felons, can they come back on him after he’s not president anymore? Because I know they did away with it, but…
SPEAKER 05 :
No, John. So that you’re talking about the Alvin Bragg case, which was the 34 felonies. That’s where they they tried to completely take a part of federal law and use state law against him. No, that he was convicted, but there was an unconditional discharge. So technically, his conviction remains on the books. but there was no fine or even penalty. That came out right before his inauguration. So he couldn’t be retried for that. That would be like double jeopardy violations. Now, whether or not he appeals that even conviction, that’s up to him, but there was no penalty. And at some point, I think you almost wear that as a badge of honor.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, absolutely. Okay, 43 seconds left. I just want to tell you, such a big day. I want you to help celebrate. Help celebrate our credible legal team, our media team as well, because we’ve got to make sure we keep this to the front page. In the theoretical front page. Well, a lot of people read the front page. The theoretical front page. Because these are big news items. The ACLJ is front and center. You need to be a part of that conversation today. If you haven’t become an ACLJ supporter, an ACLJ champion financially, I want you to do it right now. And I said all donations today are doubled. And also I want to make sure that we tell our incredible legal team how good of a job they did and how amazing the years-long battles are. 35 years of victory, and it can’t happen without you. Scan the QR code or go to aclj.org. Talk to you tomorrow.
