NEW YORK — Lawyers for former President Donald Trump told a New York City appeals court Thursday that the nearly $500 million civil fraud judgment against the former president stemmed from a “clear-cut” violation of the statute of limitations and that the costly judgment should be overturned.

Trump lawyer D. John Sauer told a five-judge panel that Attorney General Letitia James’s case was not brought in a timely manner and that the “crippling” penalty over the Trump Organization’s decades-old financial statements was not justified. In response, the panel appeared sympathetic to the possibility of lowering or reversing the costly judgment.