Benzinga - by Bibhu Pattnaik, Benzinga Staff Writer.
On Friday, former President Donald Trump's son, Eric Trump, strongly criticized the decision by a New York court to impose a substantial fine on his father.
The penalty, nearing $355 million, was handed down by Judge Arthur Engoron following a civil fraud trial that scrutinized the Trump family's business dealings.
Expressing his dismay, Eric Trump labeled the ruling as "horribly sad," lamenting the treatment his father received despite the latter's supposed "contributions" to New York City's skyline.
Eric Trump argued that the Trump family had done "absolutely nothing wrong" and instead had generated "hundreds of millions of dollars in financial gain" for the city.
“My father built a skyline of New York City. And this is the thanks he gets for doing absolutely nothing wrong, not a dollar of financial loss? The exact opposite, hundreds of millions of dollars in financial gain,” Eric Trump said on Fox News.
The civil fraud case accused the former president and his top executives, including Eric Trump and his brother Donald Trump Jr., of manipulating their net worth for tax and insurance benefits.
The verdict came despite Trump's defense that their actions were not fraudulent and that all witnesses testified in their favor.
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Eric Trump further warned against moving to New York, describing the state's legal and political environment as "politically weaponized."
“I caution anybody. I caution anybody even thinking about moving to New York to just be careful. This is not the state that my father grew up in. This is not the state that we grew up in,” he told the outlet. “This is the demise of a politically weaponized system. And it’s horribly sad.”
“New York is a hopeless place at this point. It’s so sad. This judge ruled against my father before we even went to trial. He ruled against our entire family. It was a setup from the very beginning,” he added.
“This was never supposed to be in that court. It was supposed to be in the commercial division. They would never allow it to get there.”
He also vowed to appeal the decision, which he said was "egregious."
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This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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