‘That’s Not How It Works’: Trump Begs Appeals Court to Wipe His Dirty Record Clean, Then Accuses Letitia James of Pulling the Same Stunt He’s Famous for
President Donald Trump is taking a new and different tactic in his obsession with his bitter enemy, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and his vendetta against her, trying to wipe out his record and humiliate her in a sweeping civil fraud case she brought against him and won.
Trump blames James for charging him in the 2022 business fraud case, accusing him of inflating his wealth to secure better loan and insurance terms. The case was heard as a bench trial before the New York Supreme Court Justice Judge Arthur Engoron.
After finding Trump guilty of the charges in 2024, Engoron ordered him to pay a massive $355 million penalty, which quickly ballooned to over $500 million as then-candidate Trump appealed the verdict and penalty.
In a major disappointment for James, the New York Court of Appeals tossed out the hefty fine in August of 2025, seven months after Trump took office for a second term as president, ruling the penalty an “excessive fine,” but allowing Engoron’s overall finding to stand.
However, the huge financial penalty was just one part of Engoron’s punishment.
He also barred the real estate mogul from leading a business in New York for three years or taking out any loans in the state and his sons, Don Jr. and Eric Trump, were also ordered to pay a $4 million fine and banned from running a business in the state for two years.
When the appeals court threw out the gigantic fine, it also left open a path for Trump to appeal the other penalties in Engoron’s ruling.
Now, Trump is trying to get James’ entire case completely overturned.
On April 8, in a 119-page brief, Trump told the New York Court of Appeals that James brought the case against him over “political hostility” and that she did not have the authority to bring the charges in the first place, according to Courthouse News Service.
He also accused James of “uneven enforcement” of the state’s business laws and going after him as he was launching his 2024 re-election bid.
“The reason here was pure politics, as Attorney General James’s own statements make clear,” Trump argued in the filing while also pointing to past statements James has made promising to “bring down President Trump and his real estate empire.”
Trump actually tried to use that defense at trial, too.
Social media went sideways in a frenzied spiral of anger and disbelief.
“That’s not how it works,” X user Danny C stated.
This frustrated poster chimed in, “Of course he did —cking con man.”
Another quipped, “Lock him up,” mocking Trump over his first run for president, where he fired up his supporters at campaign rallies by suggesting his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton should be locked up for keeping a private server in her home — one that stored classified documents — when she was Secretary of State.
Trump has repeatedly sent his Department of Justice after James, first trying to charge her with mortgage fraud in a case that was tossed out, then attempting to prosecute her on other trumped-up charges that two separate grand juries have declined to indict her on.
In the 2022 fraud case, James had accused an embarrassed Trump of “massive fraud to falsely inflate his net worth and unjustly enrich himself, his family, and his organization.”
Trump’s attorneys called the case a “political witch hunt” and a “political hit job.” However, Trump promised to get retribution against his enemies once elected. The Trump DOJ indicted James in October 2025 on mortgage fraud charges, alleging she misrepresented a Virginia property to get a lower loan rate.
A federal judge threw out the indictment, ruling the Trump-appointed prosecutor was unlawfully installed. Two subsequent grand juries refused to re-indict her. In March 2026, the administration tried again, submitting new insurance fraud referrals to the DOJ offices in Florida and Illinois. James remains in office and has denied all wrongdoing.