BREAKING: Court Drops Trump Fraud Penalty

We got breaking news. New York court wipes out nearly a half a billion dollar penalty against President Trump. 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. And now, your host, Logan Sekulow. Welcome to Sekulow Will Hazen 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. We are starting to go through it ourselves with the ACLJ front and center right involved in this. And of course, the breaking news of 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 over-evaluation of properties and all those things. You've heard about 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. 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 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.

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. Maybe they are lightly involved, whatever it may be.

I mean, they are directly citing us in 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's incredible work, and I've said this the whole time. That's why we got to have the best of 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 can 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 uh 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 got to continue these fights and we're going to continue winning. We need your support.

I want you to have your gifts doubled today at aclj.org/slash victory or 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 is 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, and 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 Sekillum. Welcome back to Sekulow. My dad, Jay Sekulow, is joining us right now.

Will, let's give 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, and I want to get your thoughts after this. Once 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. 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 better, more favorable terms with banks on loans and therefore enriching himself that way and 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 What's your take on this? How big a deal is this that we're seeing it today? Yeah. Let's uh let's try to reconnect with him. We're having some connection issues.

Dad, 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, that we tried to get out of an interview, tried to get out of content.

So, give us 10 seconds, everybody. We'll reconnect with him. Make sure that'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, 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 there's any more important to represent the President of the United States than it is to represent you, who maybe as your kids are going back to school, maybe they're seeking some, you know, 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.

We got him. All right. All right, Dodd, you're back on. Let's give it a shot here. What are your thoughts?

Well, I think first of all, it's very significant because it eliminated what's Was clearly an excessive fine. It violated the Eighth Amendment. What you would 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 are brief. But quotes are 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 you 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 it. Friedman sites are are brief. indicates, and I want to underscore the importance of this. When we talk about an Amicus brief, Some people say, well, what is that exactly? Mika stands for friend of the court.

We had standing to. A briefing 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 acts to grind. It was just. They were concerned.

About doing business in a state where they could do something like this.

Now, there's gonna 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 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.

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? I think there's a real we have a real chance at that. I mean, I'm 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 a huge win. The next phase will be this injunction that they put in place, which With 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 our brief got cited is huge. Yeah, absolutely. I think that, I mean, we're, 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, when 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 have the best lawyers. We want to show you 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.

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 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. Um by this case. And then sites are briefed.

I mean, London, this is huge. What I'm 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 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 a meetus brief.

Now we do a lot more than that, but I mean because it's that important. 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 as they think of, oh, and Micah's brief, 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. You're cited by a court. On a case that has huge ramifications for the Constitution, the Eighth Amendment, the First Amendment, 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 in impacting from the President of the United States slogan, as you said, all the way down to a school board hearing. Right, thank you so much for joining us, Dad. Sure, we'll have you on later in the week. This is always an important time at the ACLJ, you know, 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, school starting back.

Some of it is, you never know what you're gonna 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...

or 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 was at, and all of it. But I would love to hear from you.

With 4,000 watching on YouTube alone, we encourage you right now. First thing, I'm going to ask you to do a couple things. First thing, hit that thumbs up. Know how easy that is? Just hit that little thumbs up, and that gets it into so many more people's feeds.

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Now with that. I'm going to ask you to do one more thing. If you haven't done those two things, that's 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. That's right.

And I think we should reset it by starting where this entire thing started. And that was with Letitia James, the Attorney General of New York, brought a civil fraud case against President Trump and his Trump organization, family members, et cetera. And here's what she tweeted or posted on X when they got the judgment against President Trump on that bench trial, when the judge said, you're liable for this. And we have that graphic throw it up for everyone. Letitia James just tweeted the number of judges.

I'm going to correct it. 464,500. $576,320.62. My favorite red 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. And what we see today, because we kept fighting in that span since February 23rd, 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 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 this, 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, et cetera. 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.

Essentially saying they've said that the President and his organizations never missed a payment, never had any issues with the financial side of this. If there was a crime that you would say is what do they call that? Like a meaningless crime, a harmless crime. Right. Victimless crime.

Victimless crime. This would be it, which is a bank says, yes, here's a loan. And they repay that loan successfully. 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 action. themselves. That's right.

You know what else is absurd?

Well, we got it. 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, a thousand plus if you'd hit that thumbs up. I appreciate that.

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Now, of course, you can work your way back. And of course, you can catch us later on podcasts and archived. Phone lines are starting to light up. There you go. You know what?

Maybe I encouraged you. But as we head into the 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. Yeah.

Just check another huge box, this one for the President of the United States.

Well 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 by when you make a donation, I'll make sure they know. That is because of this today.

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 it'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. Keeping you informed and engaged.

Now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now, your host, Logan Sekulow. Welcome back to Sekulow. Phone lights are completely lit up right now.

I'm sure some won't make it at 1-800-684-30-110 as we need to reset. Because I know a lot of you just tune in at the half-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 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 that 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's certain buddies cases that are still ongoing.

And this is a big kind of slap to the face to anyone who thought this had some legs. 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 ready. That was running for the attorney general. That was her campaign.

And then, what did she do? She did exactly what she promised. The pedagogy was very good. 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 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 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 sided 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. 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 from 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 existed. It's been a wonderful time. And it's been so great to see all the laws and all the media were able to do and impact, including even today. Because of that 35 years of experience.

Because of the fact that 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 gotta 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, wow, 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 uh you know, 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. Both lines are completely full. Look at that, Will.

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 stays, 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. Thanks, guys, for taking my call.

Yeah, we couldn't have six open lines, so. Definitely got shamed into it, but I think it's I just think it's awesome with Letitia Jane. 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, 'cause the same thing you're judging, you're guilty of.

And to see What they're finding out that she did in this law fair, I just think it's fantastic. And the judgment and your guys' help in the whole thing with the Amicus brief is awesome. Thank you so much, Warren. And you look, I feel like names like Letitia James and some of those are ones that I kind of was hoping we never would have to say again, but sometimes we get to say them on a good day. In a good way, right?

Yeah, Warren. Not for them.

Well, obviously. Yeah, this was kind of 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 that's another issue that when you think about not only was the judgment 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 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 was that, 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 continued 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 law fair 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. 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. Good morning, everybody.

I want to add one quick thing to Warren. I appreciate that. Remember, don't think so highly of yourself. God will exalt in due season.

Now I from the brief that and your father had said, something that brought a question in the comments you made, Jordan, and Will kind of clarified what I wanted to ask. We know that when you go to a bank, That appraisals are subjective. Sure. 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, were they the victims? In theory, yes, I believe so.

Well, and specifically, here, the attorney general tried to use a this is a public interest in pursuing this case to kind of uh ensure that the trust in the way that business is run is 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 uh there is an argument that when you lie, one, it's it's just a crime to lie on mortgage documents that are statutorily put forward. But yeah, the victim would be a bank because if you're getting more favorable loan term, many of those papers decide 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. At it, but when you're also talking about a mortgage, it's a much smaller level of potential. There's a lot more competitors for that rather than a highly sophisticated business loan. There truly were no victims in that. 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. Let's go to John.

John is watching on Pluto TV. I assume that's on the Salem News channel. Likely, we're also on live. John, go ahead. Thank you for taking my call.

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. Um the funny thing is Trump has cut through it all. But I I see one obstacle that we're all facing. When you're dealing with people like this, The Letitia James, go down the list, there's a hundred of them.

There's a thousand of them. 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. That falls into the category of treason.

So I'm suggesting the castle. Yeah, John, I think that that is something that, look, the treason word. I would say, until fairly recently, it 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, 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. I think you get into a hairy area that I want to. Make sure that we don't end up biting you in return.

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. Yeah, and the Republicans have, 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 pathway that was not a good idea. But, John, to your point, and I agree with you, Logan. I don't think that the lawfare that Letitia James did was per se treason, especially when you read the text of 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, 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, 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. It isn't just a slogan, it's reality. Michelle, go ahead. 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 did 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? There was some information where, you know, there was property stated values because right, exactly. And even the banks in the case were saying, you know, obviously there's dispute over the valuation. They put out numbers like Mar-a-Lago is worth $10 million. It was like, this is a...

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. 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 or said, Hey, I'm going to unlock. I'm gonna 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, and 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 Sekulow 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 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 enjoyed the legal work we do, make a donation of any kind. And I would appreciate that. It could be $5, could be $5,000.

You can 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's watching on YouTube. Jay, you're on the air.

Hmm. 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 Letitia 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. This is the Turkish President. Erdogan, this is Ingeron. Ingeron.

Yeah. Yeah, they could be related. I think they violated the public trust, and I got to believe, I got to hope that they violated some sort of law because if they haven't, Then God help us, literally and figuratively.

Well, Jay, we know there's other cases that are pending with some of them, but in this specific instance, will. And you guys to this point, that is why, and what your dad said earlier: we have to fight at the next stage of this, because what this court found was that the disgorgement, as they call it, of the funds, that is the $500 million that in and of itself violated the Eighth Amendment of excessive fines. They still upheld. 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 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. 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. Hello, Jordan. Hello, everybody. How's it going? Are we excited?

Yeah, it's been a good day. Elizabeth, go ahead. I am so excited. I just wanted to call in and say I want to double my monthly giving.

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 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. Thank you, Elizabeth. We appreciate it. And again, appreciate you becoming an ACLJ champion.

Like you said, wanting to double your efforts, which I appreciate that as well. That's obviously someone that gives on a monthly recurring basis.

Someone, their donation is essentially automatically charged. Of course, you cancel anytime, 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. And 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. We're going to be able to watch this potentially in other languages that should be rolling out here 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 and 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. All right. Thank you guys. Appreciate all your time on all these things you talk about. Actually, it's western New York.

It's a red county, so I got that going for me. There you go. Don't let them redraw that for you. Go ahead. No, I'll I'll do everything I can.

So my question is, you know, all these sightings and briefs and everything for the change that to the the amount for President Trump, Or Is there any way that that law can be changed? In New York State. Based upon these briefs.

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 it was being, 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 that. 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. 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, who's 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.

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. I'm sure for years and years. Cambria, that's not something to laugh at.

Of course, even it's already gone on for years.

Well, that's the other side of this is that, you know, 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. Thank you, Cambria, for calling. John, unfortunately, I just don't think that's a good question.

Okay, John, quickly. Let's just put John of Maryland. You got like 10 seconds. Ask your question. Yeah, I was just wondering with the thirty four conviction of felons, can they come back on him after he's not President anymore?

Because I know they did away with it, but No, John.

So that you're talking about the Alvin Bragg case, which was the 34 felonies. That's where they tried to completely take a part of federal law and use state law against him. No, 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. 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 and ACLJ champion financially, I want you to do it right now.

And I said, all donations today are doubled. And I also 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.