‘He absolutely has a case’: Gregg Jarrett makes case for Trump to win appeal against Letitia James
Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett said Thursday that President Donald Trump has strong grounds to win on appeal in the New York civil fraud case against Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Trump asked New York’s highest court Wednesday to toss out the remaining civil fraud judgment against his business empire, saying James’ case reflects an unprecedented use of prosecutorial power. Appearing on “The Evening Edit,” Jarrett weighed in on whether Trump could ultimately get the case tossed out, as James moves to appeal and restore a nearly half-billion-dollar penalty that a lower appeals court previously found excessive.
“He absolutely has a case, Liz. The civil fraud case was always legally absurd. And obviously you played the sound bites. It’s politically vindictive, abusive power by James,” Jarrett told host Elizabeth MacDonald. “She ran for office on the promise to get Trump. Think about that. She’s preordaining an outcome before she’s ever opened a file or even investigated him. She should be disbarred for that. And then she contorts the law and invents this cockamamie legal theory that doesn’t even exist.”
James ran her campaign on a promise to target Trump. James made Trump a central focus of her political messaging, signaling from the outset that she intended to pursue legal action against him if elected.
WATCH:
Jarrett said the trial court’s decision was fundamentally flawed, arguing the remaining fraud finding against Trump should also be overturned.
“Then you’ve got the judge, Arthur Engoron, equally biased, rendering a decision that was so ridiculous that he was spanked and humiliated on appeal, and the judgment was tossed out. Trump wants the remaining fraud finding overturned. And it should be because no one was ever defrauded. All the lenders who did their own due diligence said we agreed with Trump’s real estate valuations,” Jarrett said. “We made a hundred million in profits on the loans. The defense had 12 experts [in] accounting, finance, real estate. They all said Trump did nothing wrong. The attorney general offered no experts, just rank speculation. So this was truly a gross miscarriage of justice driven by political bias.”
In August 2025, a New York appeals court threw out a nearly half-billion-dollar civil fraud penalty against Trump, ruling the fine “excessive.” Justice Arthur Engoron previously ordered Trump in February 2024 to pay about $355 million after finding him liable for civil fraud tied to asset valuations.
The appellate decision effectively stripped back the financial penalty while leaving the broader legal dispute over the case’s findings unresolved. The ruling kept the case alive on appeal as both sides continue to contest key elements of the judgment.
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.