File Photo: AG Wilson announces indictments issued in “Los Banditos” drug trafficking investigation.
Image: Austin Page/ABC Columbia
(WCIV) — South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson led a 15-state coalition of Republican attorney generals who filed a brief Friday supporting former President Donald Trump’s appeal of a court ordering him to pay around $355 million for making false real estate statements.
Wilson argues the brief isn’t about Trump. Instead, it is about the “rule of law and constitution.”
“We argue that this award is an excessive fine under the Eighth Amendment and also violates the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment,” Wilson said in a statement.
People in South Carolina and the other states in this coalition conduct business in New York, primarily New York City, according to the amicus brief.
“They need confidence that their customary business dealings in New York will not subject them to devastating fines,” Wilson alleges. “The Supreme Court’s disgorgement order will have a chilling effect on business conducted by citizens of amici states.”
The case – decided in February in New York – involved a judge ordering the former president to pay $355 million from his fortune, plus interest. The judge found that he had lied about his wealth on financial statements used to secure loans and make deals as he built the real estate empire that led to his fame and one term in the White House.
