(FILES) Former US President Donald Trump gestures as he returns from a break at the New York State Supreme Court during the civil fraud trial against the Trump Organization, in New York City on December 7, 2023. A US court on August 21, 2025, threw out a $464 million civil penalty against President Donald Trump imposed by a judge who found he fraudulently inflated his personal worth, calling the sum "excessive" but upholding the judgment against him. "The court's disgorgement order, which directs that defendants pay nearly half a billion dollars to the State of New York, is an excessive fine that violates the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution," said the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court. (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP)