Below is my column in the New York Post on the confiscatory fines imposed on former president Donald Trump and his family and corporation. Democrats are thrilled by the over the $450 million bill facing Trump and the possibility that he could be forced to sell off property just to seek an appeal. On ABC, New York Attorney General Letitia James declared “If he does not have funds to pay off the judgment, then we will seek judgment enforcement mechanisms in court, and we will ask the judge to seize his assets.” She added menacingly “yes, I look at 40 Wall Street each and every day.” It is a curious legal system where defendants can be priced out of appeals. While Trump has ample resources and can do this without a “fire sale,” it suggests that a person could be forced to sell a home to challenge its loss in court.
Here is the column:
Oscar Wilde wrote that “moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.” Justice Arthur Engoron took that line to heart with his absurd imposition of $455 million in fines and interest against Donald Trump and his corporation.
It succeeded wonderfully with New Yorkers, who celebrated the verdict like a popular public execution. It also worked wonderfully to make it difficult to appeal.
Much of the criticism of the decision focused on the unprecedented use of the law and the excessive size of the fine. The New York statute has been on the books for decades and has always been something of an anomaly in not requiring an actual victim or loss to justify disgorgement or fines.
Even the New York Times agreed that it could not find a single case in history where this statute was used against an individual or a company that did not commit a criminal offense, go bankrupt, or leave financial victims.
Engoron then combined that unprecedented application with an equally extraordinary penalty, which is greater than the gross national product of some countries.
He disgorged hundreds of millions in a case where not one dollar was lost by anyone. Indeed, the “victims” wanted to get more business from Trump and are now being prevented from doing so by Engoron.
There is also an added inequity to Engoron’s decision.
Under New York law, Trump cannot appeal this ruling without depositing the full amount, including interest, in a court account. Even for Trump, $455 million is hard to come by. Likewise, a bond would require a company to guarantee payment for a defendant who has been barred from doing business in New York and is facing the need to liquidate much of his portfolio.
Nothing succeeds like excess for judges like Engoron. By imposing this astronomical figure, he can make it difficult or impossible for a defendant to appeal, absent declaring bankruptcy or selling off assets at distress prices.
The excessive fine and its basis raise serious statutory and constitutional questions. Many of us believe it should be substantially reduced or tossed out entirely.
First, however, Trump must come up with almost half a billion dollars to park with the court. Even with a bond, the high costs of securing a guarantor could come at a premium. It would cost a fortune to the bond holder just to carry the risk even if Trump prevails on appeal.
The combination of the draconian fine and the threshold deposit for appeal has produced a shudder throughout the New York business community. The city is already experiencing an exodus of businesses and individuals from the top tax brackets. Rising crime, taxes, and eat-the-rich politics have made New York a hostile environment for businesses. At a time with rising costs from undocumented migrants, even Mayor Eric Adams is alarmed about the loss of his high earners.
The case brought by Attorney General Letitia James was unnerving for many. James previously sought to dissolve the National Rifle Association and campaigned on bagging Trump on some unnamed offense. The ecstasy expressed by many in the city reinforced the image of a thrill-kill chase around the island of Manhattan, like a corporate version of “Lord of the Flies.”
Watching the celebrations probably caused many executives to check time shares in Florida. 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.
But the best that politicians like Hochul and Adams can offer is that you have nothing to fear from confiscatory actions unless you are Trump in New York.
Which is precisely why this decision should be overturned.
What is clear is that this case would never have been brought, let alone result in this massive fine, except for politics.
For example, if you are the NRA, James will seek your destruction for financial irregularities, but if you are Black Lives Matter or Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, there is little real risk in such controversies.
If the only protection in New York is the discretion of figures like James, few businesses would relish the future. The message is that you can expect blind and equal justice so long as you don’t run afoul of the Democrats in power.
If you are unpopular, you could be looking at not only unprecedented actions and fines, but a need to virtually liquidate your assets just to be able to appeal a decision.
This should shock the conscience of anyone concerned about the integrity and fairness of the New York legal system. Confiscatory fines and required deposits leave not just defendants but the entire system bankrupt.
Jonathan Turley is an attorney and professor at George Washington University Law School.
I believe that this case will ultimately have to go to the US Supreme Court for violations of the Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments. And at the SCOTUS level the case will be thrown out in its entirety.
The problem with the New York State Court of Appeals is the same problem Trump had with the Colorado State Court of Appeals in that other case where a bunch of Democrat Appellate “judges” ruled that Colorado had the right to remove Trump’s name from election ballots. It had to go to the SCOTUS to get that case kicked, with a 9-0 vote, no less, because of disgusting partisan political hack judges with zero integrity!
The New York State Court of Appeals is similarly loaded with Democrat hacks who hate Trump and will want to harm him even though there’s no legal support for the New York State case. But I think the New York State “judges” will try something they think is clever to punish Trump, while falsely appearing to be following the law.
They will rule that the liability claims in the New York State case are “sufficiently supported” but that the damages are excessive. They’ll set the revised judgment at a high enough amount to say “Hey, We Nailed Trump!”–but not so high so that Trump will have to give serious consideration to paying off the judicial extortionists, given the costs of appealing this piece of crap case against him.
What amount will the New York Court of Appeals come up with to put Trump in what they think is a no-win situation? I’d say about $50 million. With the interest alone running at $120,000 a day, they’ll want to set the amount low enough make Trump think twice about taking the case to the Supreme Court. And they might “think” that $50 million will do the trick.
That said, I believe Trump will ultimately take this case to the Supreme Court, as James-Engoron had no case to begin with, as they failed to provide any evidence whatsoever that Trump’s properties could not be sold for the amounts that he stated on his financial statements.
James-Engoron could not find an account-valuation expert to given them the opinions they wanted and they absolutely needed such an expert to prove their case. All James-Engoron had were purported alternative valuations of Trump’s properties. But just because alternative valuations existed, they didn’t prove that those valuation were proper or appropriate for use on Trump’s financial statements. And, even more important, they didn’t prove that Trump’s properties could not be sold for the amounts he stated on his financial statements. And without that, they had no case. All they had was speculation and their ipse dixit conclusions.
With zero evidence to support liability, there’s no liability and there can be no amount of money that Trump can be held liable for. And Supreme Court will again rule 9-0 in Trump’s favor.
SCOTUS hasn’t ruled on the CO case yet.
Yes they have. They just haven’t written the opinion. The clerks are wrapping up their research and the drafts. And the justices will have it all packaged in three months with the 9-0 opinion.
Keep in mind that Engoron too ruled on Trump’s case before James even filed her complaint. All the rest was just “song and dance,” while James and Engoron pretended to be practicing law.
But, in the case of the SCOTUS, they care a little bit about their reputations, so things have to actually have some basis.
The process is the punishment
the process is the punishment
Since Turley regular cites polls as a good reflection of the sentiments of the American public, this week’s Economist/YouGov poll asked the following question:
What is your opinion on the penalty imposed on Donald Trump — which includes paying $355 million and a three-year ban on serving in top roles at any New York company — as a result of him being found liable for manipulating his net worth? Is it…?
Results?
Too harsh 35%
About right 28%
Not harsh enough 24%
Not sure, 13%
52% of poll respondents believe the penalties imposed on Trump are about right or not harsh enough. Which means 52% believe in the integrity and fairness of the New York legal system, JT.
So you realize those 2 polls are mostly getting replies from the Dims. The Economist is a Globalist/Oligarch Corp. YouGov polls are probably controlled by the Globalist Admin. Most conservatives wouldn’t give them the time of day.
Or it means they are just as unfair and vindictive as the so-called NY legal system…
Engoron’s Order is a scam from start to finish. Trump’s Statements of Financial Condition (“SFC”) were subject to Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) 274, which required that the assets on the SFCs be stated at amounts they “could be” exchanged for. Accordingly, to prove falsity, James-Engoron were required to provide evidence that those assets “could not” be exchanged at the amounts stated. But they never did that!
They merely referred to alternative valuations by various parties and for various purposes that were prepared years ago. That’s insufficient to show falsity because those existing valuations of properties weren’t necessarily the maximum prices they “could be” sold for and they may have even been irrelevant for the purposes of valuing the assets for Trump’s personal SFCs. Engoron’s use of the $18 million tax assessment valuation for the Mar a Lago estate is a well-publicized example of an existing, irrelevant valuation. The Florida tax assessor even stated that his valuation “should not” be used to determine the market value of the property. It was performed strictly for tax purposes, which have no bearing on valuations under ASC 274.
Thus, the only genuine way to prove falsity would have been for the prosecution to engage their own valuation expert to opine what properties he/she believed were overvalued and how those “corrected” valuations would have materially affected the SFCs. But James-Engoron FAILED to do that. They presented no valuation expert whatsoever! So, they had ZERO evidence that Trump’s SFCs were materially overstated.
And Engoron also wrote a lot of completely bogus statements and intentional misrepresentations in his decision. The following is just one example, taken directly from Engoron’s Court Order, which I’ll first present exactly as he wrote it:
“[Defense expert] Unell opined that any misstatements in Donald Trump’s SFCs were immaterial, and even stated that the inflation of the [Trump Tower] Triplex (which resulted in an overvaluation of approximately $200 million) was immaterial and did not cause the SFCs to be unfairly or inaccurately presented, a statement which severely diminished his credibility before the Court.”
“[Another defense expert] Bartov insisted that the misrepresentation of the Triplex, resulting in a $200 million intentional overvaluation, was not or material (leading the Court to wonder in what universe is $200 million immaterial).”
First, James-Engoron presented zero evidence that the Triplex was overvalued by $200 million. All they did was refer to some earlier valuation done years ago that was $200 million less than the amount used in Trump’s SFCs. They did not independently determine that the lower valuation of teh Triplex reflected the “highest and best use” of the Triplex according to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. They presented no independent expert of their own to opine that the valuation for the Triplex that was for $200 million less was even reasonable, supportable, or appropriate–let alone the maximum amount that the Triplex “could be” sold for per ASC 274.
Second, even if we assume, arguendo, that the Triplex was “overvalued” by $200 million, that amount was still not necessarily material, as it could have been offset by another property that was undervalued by $200 million. Keep in mind that individual properties were not individually listed in the SFCs. Instead, they were aggregated into larger balance amounts appearing on each year’s SFC. So, the stated balance amount on the SFCs for real estate properties may still valid, even though one property is overstated by $200 million and another understated by $200 million because the net impact of those misstatements is zero.
Now, you may be wondering why James never used her own valuation expert at trial and why Engoron never demanded one to support James’s so-called case. Here’s why. They either could not find a valuation expert willing to risk his/her reputation by lying under oath about the valuations, or they found such a person, but when they held a practice cross-examination, their expert fell apart and could not conceal the fact that he/she was lying.
In the end, there was, indeed, fraud in this case. But the fraud was committed by Letitia James and Arthur Engoron, not by Donald J. Trump.
Good detailed analysis! Thank you!
Weismann TESTIFIED that Trump “overvalued “ the Trump Tower apartment by $200 million. He was the CFO of the Trump Organization. So, you are incorrect in claiming that there was no evidence. Secondly, Judge Engoron found the Trump “expert “ to be not credible because, among other reasons, he charged almost a million dollars for his “testimony.” As the finder of fact, assessing credibility of witnesses whose testimony is inconsistent is his duty.
I’d still like one of you Trump fans to explain how or why it’s unfair for Judge Engoron to assess damages based on the amount of monetary benefit Trump received as a result of his lying on financial statements. The amount is high, but so was the extent of Trump’s lies—which were egregious. The judgment amount is based on the amount of ill gotten gains that resulted from Trump’s lies—loans he wouldn’t have qualified for and on far better terms than he could have gotten if he had not lied. How is that unfair?
nothing exceeds like excess…
Judge Engoron held that the extent and audacity of Trump’s lies were “shocking to the conscience.” The judgment reflected the egregiousness of Trump’s lies and is based on the financial benefit obtained from his lies.
Natasha/Gigi, your reply is so silly that one doesn’t expect it even from you. There is not one developer in NYC whose property valuation methodology is any different than Trump’s. All you are proving is that you are a stupid person who knows nothing about the world she lives in and makes decisions based on the person, not the crime.
S meyer: 1. what makes you an expert on property valuations by NYC developers? Cite me something that qualifies you to make a statement that every NYC developer lies to the extent Trump did by, just as an example, tripling the size of a condo to pump up the value of this collateral by $200 million. Can you cite a single case where this has happened? Has any NYC developer gone on the pro-Trump media you rely on and admitted to such falsification of financial statements? Or, why don’t you admit that you are just repeating some swill fed to you by pro-Trump media. 2. have you read Judge Engoron’s 80 some odd page judgment? I have. He spells out, in detail, the extent and egregiousness of Trump’s audacious lies and exactly how Trump benefitted by lying. He explains that several deals Trump made wouldn’t have happened without lying about the value of the collateral. And, he explains the duty of the judiciary to protect the integrity of the financial market in NYC. 3. YOU are the one who doesn’t even understand the issue here–this was a CIVIL case, not a criminal case–there’s no “crime” involved at all.
“what makes you an expert on property valuations by NYC developers? Cite me something that qualifies you to make a statement that every NYC developer lies ”
Gigi,I will not provide that type of personal information, but puffery is well-known in the industry. It is legal. That you don’t know much about it isn’t surprising as you act like a dope and probably are one. You do not understand business, and whatever schooling you had didn’t teach you how to think. I will say I was involved a bit in NYC real estate outside of my personal Manhattan residence.
You claim “puffery is well-known in the industry. It is legal”. You have tacitly admitted you are not part of “the industry”, so you have no way of claiming, via personal experience, the extent of “puffery” versus perjury. No other real estate tycoon testified that it’s OK to egregiously lie about assets, so this is just some argument you picked up from pro-Trump media. And, there is a vast difference between “puffery” and perjury. Again, you don’t seem to understand that the Engoron matter was CIVIL, not criminal, so legal or illegal wasn’t the issue–it was obtaining higher loans on better terms based on outrageously lying to the extent that it shocked the conscience of Judge Engoron. As usual with Trumpsters, when you don’t agree with something someone wrote, you call them names and attack their intelligence, but what you are really doing is proving your own lack of knowledge and devotion to a narcissistic liar and cheater.
“You have tacitly admitted you are not part of “the industry”
Where was that admitted? Actually, I have significant experience in real estate in NYC.
Why are you so dumb that you have to make things up? You know very little and have a closed mind.
“there is a vast difference between “puffery” and perjury. ”
Document where Trump committed perjury and provide your proof. I can’t believe I am discussing complex issues with a moron.
Is there not an internal, or more preferably, an external oversight body that can legally evaluate the legitimacy of this entire court proceeding without even waiting for an appeal? Every aspect of this case on the prosecution side is blatantly outside the guardrails of the Constitution and common sense. What has happened to the concept of “equal justice under the law” in our country? If a populace continually cowers under the repeated partisan acts of its government, perhaps it deserves the logical result.
And all that Trump had to do, was to demand to see a copy of his written guarantee that he would actually get a fair trial, especially in a completely rigged up legal system! A legal system that is not just rigged up in general, but with a trial that was rigged up AGAINST HIM!! Please tell me why any man or woman with an ounce of intelligence to their name, would volunteer into such a thing? Is he really that dumb to do that? Maybe he’s really not all that smart then, right?
What do you mean? Trump should have demanded the court give him a written guarantee?
He could have settled quietly. Instead he sent Weisselberg to jail and played the victim
Any reasonable person who wasn’t milking the situation for free publicity and donations would have settled early on. He simply got caught lying.
But he saw a chance to play the victim and get his disciples to pay the tab for his lies. What defense is there to tripling the size and value of an apartment in order to qualify for a larger loan on more favorable terms? That’s just one example of the lies he told.
It’s too late, now.
Under NY law, Trump is only guilty of puffery which carries no penalty. Other than the size of his condo, all other Trump information consisted of value estimates, a totally subjective guess. Unless a statement is objectively verifiable, it can’t lead to a charge of fraud under NY cases.. Whether a weather forecast or financial forecast(needed for valuation purposes ), there is no penalty for being wrong.
The puffery defense isn’t mentioned in Engoron’s opinion which suggests it may not have been argued by Trump’s lawyers. Trump got railroaded.
Can someone please bring this issue to the attention of Trump or the attention of his lawyers?
This is simply factually incorrect. For example, Trump claimed that his LP stake in Vornado was a cash-equivalent investment–in some years making up a very large chunk of his cash position–when in fact it was gated and illiquid.
It’s striking how much of Turley’s commentariat simply does not understand what happened in this case, and how disinterested he is in speaking to the genuine facts of the opinion. It gives the impression that he has not read it, or does not care what it says. That is certainly true of most of his commenters, who seem to be here only for the partisan cheerleading.
Put me on a jury against you-oh wait there wasn’t any. You will fry.
He elected to not have a jury
There is nothing fraudulent about how Trump handled his LP interest. It is impossible to claim anyone was defrauded when everyone in commercial real estate knows beyond a shadow of a doubt what is meant by Trump holding an LP interest .
Turley knows but he needs the money being Trump’s flak pays him.
He signed doc “Under the penalty of perjury”. If you fire a gun in the air, if it doesn’t hit someone are you innocent?
Financial statements are attested to UNDER OATH, subject to the penalties for perjury. Judge Engoron found Trump’s lies to be “shocking to the conscience.” Trump overvalued his apartment to the tune of $200 million by tripling the size of the sq footage—that isn’t chicken feed. That’s way beyond “puffery.”
“shocking to the conscience.”
Again, Natasha / Gigi, you are being silly. What does “shocking to the conscience.” mean? I find your understanding of the law and repetition of stupidity is “shocking to the conscience.” and you should be placed in a mental asylum. If I find a judge who is willing to be bribed, should you be committed? The answer is yes, not because of the bribe but because you actually sound unhinged.
“shocking to the conscience” is a phrase used by Judge Engoron. When you criticize me for making this statement, you prove you haven’t even read the Judgment, which is over 80 pages long, very detailed and which sets forth the extent of benefits that resulted from Trump lying and that the law allows for disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, which is how the judgment number was arrived at. As a devoted fan to a pathological liar, you attack anyone who takes a position against your hero that you don’t like. Now, I need to be committed to a mental institution by repeating the rationale for Judge Engoron’s judgment? If either of us is “unhinged”, it’s you–you are devoted to someone who has scammed people his entire life-someone who has tried to paint an image of himself as some kind of wunderkind real estate mogul, but who is, in reality, a cheater and liar whose business “empire” started with money gifted to him–not his own talents–someone who has to borrow money to keep his “empire” from going under. Someone who touts “family values” but is on his third marriage, and who consorts with porn actresses and nude models; in fact, current wifey was a former nude model–those photos are still on the internet, and some of them have lesbian themes–look them up if you don’t believe me This is someone who went to Wharton because he paid a smart Jewish guy to take entrance exams for him. This is someone who was caught engaging in racial discrmination in housing, who agreed to a consent decree to cease and desist, but who lies about “winning” the case. Someone who had the audacity, just this past weekend, to claim that black people would relate to him because of his mug shot and the pathetic sneakers he’s trying to sell–oblivious to the fact that he is promoting racial stereotypes that all blacks get arrested and will fall in love with him because of his sneakers, ignoring the fact that he is a rabid racist. This is someone who was an utter failure pretending to be POTUS–turned around the successful economy he inherted into the worst recession since the Great Depression, whose incompetence in handling the pandemic and lying about the seriousness and promoting fake cures made it much worse than it had to be, someone who started a trade war with China because he couldn’t bully them; someone who can’t stop lying–lying about losing in 2020, lying about nonexistent “accomplishments”–the list goes one. This is someone who is manipulating the Republican Party to refuse to pass the bipartisan Border Security bill worked on for months by Democrats and Republicans, because he thinks he can attack Joe Biden on this issue and get dumb people to vote for him–all the while, Border Patrol officers need the money the bill would have provided them for more officers, more judges, and bill would have made deportations easier and provided the resources for it. Meanwhile, fentanyl keeps pouring in because Border Patrol lacks the resources the bill would have provided to stop it. Then, there’s the criminal indictments and the civil fraud trial, which he is using to play the victim–to get gullible people like you to pay for his misdeeds and fraud. You support this turd, and you call me crazy?
“shocking to the conscience” is a phrase used by Judge Engoron.”
Correct, Gigi, but Engoron has no conscience. He is retiring, so he won’t see a blowback for his craziness, and he will likely be provided with some retirement benefits. It could be one of those cushy jobs in a think tank where he does nothing.
“you prove you haven’t even read the Judgment, which is over 80 pages long.”
We know you read the page numbers 1 to 80 plus but didn’t read the text and skipped right from 1 to the end. Tell me what I missed. Mar a Lago is only worth $19-$27 million. What type of fool are you? The judge doesn’t know anything about the real estate market and may know less than you if that is possible. Do you know Palm Beach? Have you ever been in those homes? I have, and I have been at Mar a Lago. All the houses are over-priced to me, but to the multi-billionaire, an extra $10 million is meaningless. The value of Mar a Lago is what someone is willing to pay for it. The banks know that, so they do independent assessments instead of relying on an owner estimate along with the disclaimer. Do your own research.
I don’t concern myself with Trump. I concern myself with policies that work. Trump’s policies work, and you need help to mount a reasonable argument as to why Biden’s policies are better than Trump’s. You need help even to get the facts straight. Most sentient persons on the blog have concluded you are a moron.
Now I believe every nefarious act against Trump since 2016 is suspicious. This judge just attacked not only Trump but my poor Dad who came back from serving with PTSD. This ruling and judicial trap is DISGUSTING and visceral. I would not give you a nickel to trade places in the judgement line with this guy. Btw/ The great Thomas Aquinas proved there is a God in his famous Quinque Via. Funny, he didn’t even use religion in his argument or 5 proofs. ONLY science and philosophy. Sadly, hell is forever. Check out the Eighth Commandment