Leftists in New York City — and around the world, for that matter — were undoubtedly in celebration mode after they heard the dollar amounts that former President Donald Trump, two of his sons, and his various enterprises were penalized for in the fraud suit brought by New York State District Attorney Letitia James.
New York Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron ordered Trump to pay $355 million in damages in the civil fraud case that accused him of lying about his net worth to get more favorable terms from lenders.
Other co-defendants, including Eric and Donald Trump Jr., were hit with penalties as well, and James estimated that when interest is added to the totals as required by state law, the sum rises to $464 million, according to The Associated Press.
Moreover, Trump and his sons were banned from leading any New York-based organization for the next three years.
Surely, that’s a win for James and her fellow Democrats, right?
Not so fast.
First off, there’s the possibility that the whole thing could be thrown out by a higher court after Trump files what seems like an inevitable appeal.
Experts told Reuters that appellate court judges often view such “severe penalties” as questionable on their face, and there’s the additional possibility that they may find James to have overstepped her bounds just by bringing the lawsuit in the first place.
“I think the judges are going to have to look carefully at what the powers of the attorney general are here,” Syracuse University law professor Gregory Germain told the outlet. “Are they so broad that any lie can put you out of business, even if nobody believed it?”
Was Trump subjected to selective prosecution?
In other words, the whole investigation and trial may have been a colossal waste of time. But if it wasn’t — if Trump actually loses again on appeal — the situation for the New York that James is supposed to be protecting as district attorney might be even worse.
Trump’s headquarters is currently at Trump Tower in New York, but Trump and his sons are banned from running businesses in New York. The solution to that conundrum is simple, according to former George W. Bush press secretary Air Fleischer.
“[Y]ou just say goodbye to New York, which fits a pattern that many successful people have been doing and leaving New York because New York is just too political, too blue and too punitive,” Fleischer told Fox News. “You’re seeing that in the business community and among upper income New Yorkers already.”
After all, Trump already resides in Florida; why not move his businesses there, too?
George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said the size of Engoron’s verdict might mean that Trump isn’t the only one looking to relocate in the near future.
“It’s one of the greatest ironies of this case,” he told Fox. “In the name of protecting businesses in New York, you probably just led to hundreds of businesses looking at potential rentals in Florida because they look and they go, ‘wow, if we fall on the wrong side of the politics in New York, they could sell us off for spare parts.’”
The fact that James had campaigned partially on promises to go after Trump, Turley added, may give the former president yet another grounds for appeal — a claim of selective prosecution.
“Clearly, James made this pledge that she was going to bag Donald Trump,” he told Fox. “And it is part of an overall campaign that seems to be an effort at ‘death by exposure’ both on the civil and criminal side.”
Fleischer said it was up to the appellate court to “rescue” the city from the consequences of James’ prosecution and Engoron’s verdict.
“There’s very little pressure pushing back on these politicians here to stop doing it because it’s wrong,” Fleischer said, referring to the fact that New York County typically votes Democratic over Republican by a ratio of nearly 6-to-1.
“So unless the appeals process in New York comes to the rescue, it’s become a legal banana republic,” he added.
