Posted on 02/19/2024 2:50:13 PM PST by george76
Below is my column in The Hill on the $355 million verdict against Trump and his corporation in New York. The damages in my view are excessive and absurd after the court acknowledged that no one lost a dime in these exchanges. Indeed, the “victims” wanted to do more business with Trump and made handsome profits. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has rushed to assure businesses that there is “nothing to worry about” after the corporate public execution of Trump and his company. The assumption seems to be that you have nothing to fear from confiscatory actions unless you are Trump in New York. That is precisely why the New York Court of Appeals should act to redeem the integrity of the legal system by setting aside or drastically reducing this award.
Here is the column:
In laying the foundation for his sweeping decision against former President Donald Trump, Judge Arthur Engoron observed that “this is a venial sin, not a mortal sin.” Yet, at $355 million, one would think that Engoron had found Trump to be the source of Original Sin.
The judgment against Trump (and his family and associates) was met with a level of unrestrained celebration by many in New York that bordered on the indecent. Attorney General Letitia James declared not only that Trump would be barred from doing business in New York for three years, but that the damages would come to roughly $460 million once interest was included.
That makes the damages against Trump greater than the gross national product of some countries, including Micronesia. Yet the court admitted that not a single dollar was lost by the banks from these dealings. Indeed, witnesses testified that they wanted to do more business with Trump, who was described as a “whale” client with high yield business opportunities.
Undervaluing and overvaluing property is a longstanding practice in New York real estate. The forms submitted by the Trump organization cautioned the banks to do their own estimates and the loans were paid in full and on time. Yet, the New York law used by James is a curiosity because it does not actually require a victim. Indeed, everyone can make ample profits and still allow for an investigation into “repeated fraudulent or illegal acts.”
Having campaigned on bagging Trump on any basis, James turned the law into a virtual license to hunt him down along with his family and his associates.
Engoron proved the perfect judge for the case. The opinion itself seems almost cathartic for the jurist who struggled with Trump inside and outside of court. In the judgment, Engoron fulfilled Oscar Wilde’s rule that the only way to be rid of temptation is to yield to it. He ordered everything short of throwing Trump into a wood chipper.
The size of the damages is grotesque and should shock the conscience of any judge on appeal. Even if the Democrat-appointed judges on the New York Court of Appeals were to ignore the obvious inequity and unfairness, the United States Supreme Court could intervene.
State courts tend to get a significant amount of deference in the interpretation of their own laws. After all, if New York wants to turn Wall Street into a remake of “The Hunger Games,” it has only itself to blame as other businesses flee the state.
The impact on New York business is likely to be dire. New York is already viewed as a hostile business environment, with the top end of its tax base literally heading south as taxes and crime rises. This draconian award is only going to deepen concerns over the arbitrary application of the law by figures like James, who previously sought to disband the National Rifle Association. (She has shown less interest in cracking down on liberal organizations like Black Lives Matter or the National Action Network of Al Sharpton despite their own major financial scandals.)
As James gleefully uses this law to break up a major New York corporation, it is hard to imagine many businesses rushing to the Big Apple. This follows Democratic politicians such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) campaigning against Amazon seeking to open new facilities in the city. After this week, drawing new businesses to the city is going to be about as easy as selling country estates during the French Revolution.
The one hope for New York businesses may be the U.S. Supreme Court. Despite the deference afforded to the states and their courts, the court has occasionally intervened to block excessive damage awards.
For example, in 1996, the justices limited state-awards of punitive damages under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. In that case, BMW was found to have repainted luxury cars damaged in transit without telling buyers.
An Alabama jury awarded $4,000 in compensatory damages for the loss of value in having a factory paint job, but then added $4 million in punitive damages. Even when the Alabama Supreme Court reduced that to $2 million, the U.S. Supreme Court still found it excessive. Even liberals on the Court such as John Paul Stevens and Stephen Breyer agreed that such “grossly excessive” awards raise a “basic unfairness of depriving citizens of life, liberty, or property, through the application of arbitrary coercion.”
The court may find almost half a billion dollars in damages without a single lost dollar from a victim to be a tad excessive.
That prospect will not dampen the thrill-kill environment in New York this week. In electing openly partisan prosecutors such as James and District Attorney Alvin Bragg, voters have shown a preference for political prosecutions and investigations.
In “Bonfire of the Vanities,” Tom Wolfe wrote about Sherman McCoy, a successful businessman who had achieved the status of one of the “masters of the universe” in New York. In the prosecution of McCoy for a hit-and-run, Wolfe described a city and legal system devouring itself in the politics of class and race. The book details a businessman’s fall from a great height — a fall that delighted New Yorkers.
It is doubtful Trump will end up as the same solitary figure wearing worn-out clothes before the Bronx County Criminal Court clutching a binder of legal papers. But you do not have to feel sorry or even sympathetic for Trump to see this award as obscene. The appeal will test the New York legal system to see if other judges can do what Judge Engoron found so difficult: set aside their feelings about Trump.
New York is one of our oldest and most distinguished bars. It has long resisted those who sought to use the law to pursue political opponents and unpopular figures. It will now be tested to see if those values transcend even Trump.
Now They are saying that Trump has to pay &5000 down just to Appeal. This is so clearly election manipulation. The Supreme court should be involved. How can a state nullify a candidate like this. They should at least have a stay until the Appeals court can rule.
I do not recognize the validity of a law that allows a person to
be prosecuted if there was no harmed party.
This is soviet show trial territory. Whether you like Trump or not, no person should have to endure the level of vindictive persecution that Trump has to endure.
Especially if it’s being perpetrated by the federal government. Even being a case in NY, this is coming straight from the top.
Normally, victims get restitution for damages they suffered. Who was damaged? Who gets paid?
This was just a money-grab by New York state, and they should be punished for it.
It's the New York legal system that are the racketeers in this mess.
-PJ
I understand your reasoning, and on the face of it can’t
argue against your point.
Now it may be that certain loans were carried out with
a percentage rate the court thinks should have been higher,
and perhaps they are awarding funds to restore their claimed
loss (claimed by the court). I just don’t know.
A lender and a client came to an agreement. Business was
conducted under free will. Both parties were satisfied
with the transaction. I have no idea how a court can
just jump in and toss all that out, to take a person they
loathe down.
Absolutely disgusting of James and that nasty judge. We all knew what was going to happen because neither of the two held back their opinions on the Trumps. Especially President Trump. They had decided the verdict before the trial!
“In electing openly partisan prosecutors such as James and District Attorney Alvin Bragg, voters have shown a preference for political prosecutions and investigations.”
Right there is the crux of the whole issue. As long as the vote counters keep putting these a$$clowns into office, there will be these despicable outcomes.
The prosecution was obscene to begin with. The verdict moreso. The award incomprehensible.
I already have my first line items:
ITEM: Client meeting (I was looking forward to this trip, but I informed the client today that I'll be signing in online instead)
2/20/24 -- $151 ... hotel for one-night stay (taxes included)
2/20/24 -- $10 toll
2/21/24 -- $12 (estimated lunch expense)
2/21/24 -- $10 toll (return trip)
---------------------------------------
TOTAL -- $183
Turley reveals himself as a naif.
Is there a name given to a situation where the judge can use his position and his hate, to do a personal hit on someone.
Is someone on this as I speak?
The repub house was makimg a statement and more.. This morning.
Truckers are not delivering to NY..
Anything else?
Dear Alberta’s Child, 10$ tolls?, $12 lunch? I take it that you haven’t been to NYC in a while.
I've taken this same trip about a dozen times in the last two years. The only thing that varies (seasonally) is the price of the hotel room.
Truly will still vote for them. And Biden.
The trial was one long legal
obscenity as well.
About the only thing missing in this NY trial judgement is a firm date in the Lubyanka cellar with Vasily Mikhailovich Blokhin.
That train left the station long ago, Mr. Turley.
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