“The View” co-host Sara Haines received pushback from her fellow co-hosts Tuesday for calling the ruling in former President Donald Trump’s civil fraud ruling “excessive.”
Judge Arthur Engoron ruled Trump must pay $355 million in damages and is barred from directing a business or legal entity in New York for three years in a Friday court decision. The ruling resulted from a lawsuit brought forth by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who alleged Trump deceived banks and insurance companies by overvaluing his assets.
Haines argued the large sum of money Trump is ordered to pay plays “into the optics” that the New York attorney general is attacking him for personal and political reasons.
“I do think, and this is not due to any emotion towards Trump, I think the punishment was excessive and for this reason,” Haines said. “That is the one pushback. It’s all legal, it’s all falls within the legal realm. But, the number on that, what Alyssa was regarding with the victimless. If you take a company, and I’m using a Katy Tur example here, and it’s a cosmetic company and it poisons you, and then that company is sued, they will be held accountable with a greater number because they have direct human victims in the crime.”
“Even Trump was held on this same one before for only $25 million in the Trump University case and those were victims,” she continued. “Those were people who were completely conned into a degree. My criticism of this is not because I feel any sorrow for Donald Trump. But I do think he is an instigator of sowing distrust of institutions. It’s his one thing. Everyone’s completely kind of against him, it’s a political witch hunt. It’s personal. This ruling, to the number it has been held, is slightly playing into the optics that this was political and personal.”
The other co-hosts argued in favor of the ruling, saying the number “did not come out of nowhere.” (RELATED: ‘Mega-Loser State’: Kevin O’Leary Says He Will ‘Never’ Invest In New York After Trump Ruling)
“But the number was proven by evidence, by a paper trail,” co-host Sunny Hostin said.
“That number didn’t come out of nowhere,” co-host Whoopi Goldberg said.
“There’s a paper trial here,” Hostin repeated. “He has defrauded the government and the state of New York for years.”
Haines then said the banks testified during the trial that Trump paid the loans back in full, saying the $355 million figure is too much.
“Not if you say that you have a billion dollars,” Hostin said.
Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin argued the banks are also responsible for granting the loans.
Trump called James “a horribly corrupt attorney general” and accused her and other “radical left Democrats” of election interference.
“Letitia James, that’s another case altogether,” Trump said outside of Mar-a-Lago following the ruling. “She is a horribly corrupt attorney general and it’s all having to do with election interference. There were no victims because the banks made a lot of money, they made $100 million. And by the way, I paid approximately $300 million in taxes as the migrants come in and they take over New York, I paid over this period of years over $300 million in taxes and they want me out, oh, let’s see if we can get him out. These are radical left Democrats, they are lunatics and it’s election interfering.”