ANALYSIS – In what is only the latest weaponized, partisan legal action against former President Donald Trump, the far-left Democrat New York state attorney Letitia James and her leftist cohort Justice Arthur Engoron have just found Trump guilty of civil fraud before his trial even began.
Never mind that the case is obscene to begin with and should not even exist. And the law it is based on is obscene as well and should not exist either. Andrew McCarthy explains in National Review:
James, an ambitious progressive authoritarian who campaigned for office on a vow to weaponize the Empire State's legal processes against Trump, decided to package the scraps [of leftover fraud charges no one else could prosecute] into a lengthy civil complaint. After all, she had a secret weapon: New York's Executive Law 65(12), which empowers an abusive prosecutor to put partisan enemies out of business without having to prove anything. Although this provision purports to outlaw “repeated” and “persistent” “fraud” and/or “illegality,” in reality, as I explained last week in a column for The Messenger:
“The law doesn't require a showing of harm. The state need not prove the defendant even intended to defraud anyone, much less actually defrauded someone. It need not be established that any creditor or financial institution even relied on the defendant's misrepresentations, that those misrepresentations were material, or that anyone was actually fooled by them. The state just has to show that a defendant made false claims with enough “persistence” and “repetition” that at least two persons were “affected” — which, whatever it means, is not a synonym for ‘harmed.'”
Claiming Trump significantly overvalued his properties and assets when presenting his company's financials to banks and lenders and that this somehow “affected” someone, James is seeking at least $250 million in penalties, a ban against Trump and his sons Donald Jr. and Eric from running businesses in New York, and a five-year commercial real estate ban against Trump and the Trump Organization.
The accusations are that Trump inflated the value of assets by $1.9 billion to $3.6 billion annually between 2011 and 2021 to save hundreds of millions on loans and insurance.
This, even though no one has been claimed to have been harmed, and all financial institutions take self-declared valuations like those made by Trump, with a grain of salt when making loans and other major financial decisions.
Bankers and insurance executives have a fiduciary obligation to conduct their own due diligence to determine what they believe are fair market valuations of assets. And they always do.
And as McCarthy further explains, everyone involved knew Trump exaggerated just about everything:
…this was for political consumption and the burnishing of celebrity. In the league of sophisticated financial actors in which Trump plays, where corporate departments are dedicated to valuation analysis because that's the bread-and-butter of finance, nobody took this nonsense seriously. Indeed, Trump even included a “worthless clause” in his SFCs which, in so many words, warned that they were apt to be, you know, somewhat less than perfectly accurate. Many of the financial institutions that did business with Trump did so for years, and knew exactly the cat they were dealing with. They made loans and indemnified Trump because they knew, based on their own expertise and experience with him, that he was quite wealthy (even if not as wealthy as he claimed) and that he would pay up.
But that didn't stop Justice Engoron, who ruled preemptively on September 26 that James had proven Trump and his co-defendants fraudulently inflated his assets.
Engoron, in his ruling, ordered the cancellation of certificates that 10 of Trump's business entities need to operate some of his marquee properties — including Trump Tower and his golf clubs in New York — and said he would appoint independent receivers to oversee their “dissolution.”
The judge thus essentially imposed the corporate death penalty on Trump's businesses BEFORE the trial even began.
Trump responded in a post on his Truth Social platform the day of the ruling, calling accusations that he committed fraud “ridiculous and untrue,” and hit back, calling Engoron a “DERANGED” judge.
In this case, I must agree with Trump's wording. The judge is deranged, but he is also a partisan hack and embarrassment in what is already a highly partisan and embarrassing New York judicial system.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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IF I was in the market for real estate this judge would be the one I would use as he would certainly find me a bargain!
This really is good news for President Trump. The further these Leftist jack azzes push it the bigger they will loose, possibly opening themselves up to be sued for everything from harassment to bringing false charges and denial of a fair trial.
See how the System works
If the state seizes Trumps property without evidence of a “crime”, since this is strictly civil, doesn’t this amount to a violation of Trump’s constitutional rights? The government is not allowed to take property arbitrarily.
I’m not 100% sure but I thought only a bankruptcy judge could put a value on a person’s property. Even real estate is not “valued” it is suggested to be valued at but the seller sets the price he wishes to sell for. So I think you are 100% right.
Letitia James as well as the old judge need to be removed. They are both incompetent. Just a set up and it will be their downfall!
I don’t know about deranged, but he’s a very corrupt and evil piece of human excrement. But then he’s a New Yorker.
You are a vet, thank you with all my heart. Trump, I think in 2018, went with Melania, in the middle of the night the night after Christmas, to visit and hug the troops in Iraq The runway was dark and so was Air Force One. The troops were very very happy to see them.
When the Fisher House opened (MacDonalds place to stay for visiting families of sick including the military),
the couple who were benefactors and President Trump were there. They celebrated a soldier who lost his legs and hands sitting in a wheelchair. President Trump started crying and walked over to him to hug and kiss him and his wife.
Trump and Melania went in the middle of the night, in darkness on Christmas to visit the troops in Iraq, I think in 2018.
President Trump hugged and kissed a serviceman without legs and hands in a wheelchair and his wife at the opening of Fisher House. The couple who donated the House were there.
Thank you for your service
Trump donated his salary when President, donated millions to the Police Athletic league when in NYC,
was part of the Rainbow coalition encouraging Black entrepreneurs when he was in NYC, donated a wing at Jamaica Hospital, helped the family of a handicapped boy with alot of equipment to get home on his plane because the commercial airline had no room, there was a list online of people asking him for money- he sent money to alot of those people. I can go on and on. But you hear twisted truth by CNn or MSNBC.
I again thank you for your service.
You’re right – the judge is exactly that
The Democrats are trying to prevent Trump from running for President.
The Democrats are trying all which ways to stop Trump from running for president
Praying Trump’s lawyers counter sue every judge and or lawyer that’s charged him with all these phony reasons. This last one doesn’t even follow any law ! I’ve never heard of such ignorance from courts ! It’s a total disgrace and normally would only be seen in a dictatorship. This for Big Change
well you got a judge and a bunch of congo cookies that aint never worked for nothing been getting handouts all their lives from the govment like bidens so they hate people that worked hard and made something with their lives. They need to have to leave newyork and see how it works out for them
I expected this from the DA since she has previously proven that she’s a partisan who cares more about making a show of “getting ‘ DJT than upholding the law. But when a Judge announces a verdict before the trial has begun, it reveals he’s complicit in the partisan hackery.
This insane law will not stand in the Supreme Court!
Saying Trump is guilty and you`re trying the case. She has to recuse herself period. I remember what a big deal it was when Nixon said Charles Manson was guilty.