OPINION:
As a New Yorker, I wish Democratic Attorney General Letitia James and Judge Arthur Engoron would treat shoplifters, graffiti vandals and armed robbers with just a puff of the volcanic rage with which they are working to “get Trump.”
Former President Donald Trump’s civil fraud indictment, trial, and $354.9 million penalty are an abortion of justice. That massive sum likely violates the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment requirement that there shall be no “excessive fines imposed.”
Appellate judges should vacate this travesty with prejudice.
Why?
First, rather than approach this case fairly, Ms. James campaigned by promising to prosecute Mr. Trump. “I will never be afraid to challenge this illegitimate president,” Ms. James said in 2018, heaping election denial atop bias. “I will be shining a bright light into every dark corner of his real estate dealings.”
Ms. James’ approach blends Inspector Javert’s monomaniacal bullying of recovering bread thief Jean Valjean in “Les Miserables” with, in spirit, a bill of attainder, which unconstitutionally hounds one specific individual.
Rather than feel bamboozled and pickpocketed, corporate executives testified that Mr. Trump repaid his loans with interest, sometimes ahead of schedule. They liked him so much that they wanted to lend him even more money.
Retired Deutsche Bank risk manager Nicholas Haigh testified on Oct. 11 that his company independently assessed and discounted Mr. Trump’s financial declarations.
“I think the phrase we used might have been ‘sanity checks’ on the numbers,” Mr. Haigh said.
When Mr. Trump borrowed $125 million for his Doral golf course in 2011, Deutsche Bank modified Mr. Trump’s net worth from his stated $4.3 billion down to $2.4 billion — and then made him a loan accordingly.
“It’s a conservative measure to make these adjustments,” Managing Director David Williams testified on Nov. 28, saying that such a “stress test” is standard practice.
Ms. James’ case is like prosecuting an alleged serial rapist whose “accusers” swear under oath that he was a perfect gentleman who dined with them and then dropped them off at home, untouched.
Ms. James’ partner in injustice is Judge Arthur Engoron. This Democratic Party donor should be booted from the bench for behaving more like the chairman of the Hate Trump PAC than an honest, evenhanded jurist.
First, on Sept. 26, Judge Engoron found Mr. Trump “liable as a matter of law for persistent violations of Executive Law § 63(12).” The judge so ruled seven days before, in his own words, “a non-jury trial that began on October 2, 2023.” In other words, verdict first, testimony later. Having rendered his findings before hearing witnesses, Judge Engoron dedicated the trial to assessing Mr. Trump’s penalty, not whether to impose one.
Second, once those witnesses spoke, Judge Engoron ignored their testimony. Bank executives who said they suffered no fraud left him cold.
Third, this case concerns Mr. Trump allegedly overvaluing his properties to secure bigger, better loans.
Is this connection, consider:
A 2.32-acre lot is for sale at 1063/1071 N. Ocean Blvd. on Palm Beach Island. No house, no pool. It’s just a giant lawn. Price: $200 million.
Meanwhile, a 14-minute drive and 5.6 miles down the same street, at 1100 South Ocean Blvd., sits Mr. Trump’s 20-acre Mar-a-Lago estate. It’s a palatial, 58-bedroom, 33-bathroom resort with gardens, fountains, a swimming pool, restaurants and ballrooms. General Foods owner Marjorie Merriweather Post spent $7 million — or $123 million today — to build this hideaway.
Despite Post’s initial investment and ensuing luxuries, Judge Engoron valued Mar-a-Lago at $18 million — just 9% of the price of that nearby patch of dirt.
This nonsense confirms that the judge is terminally ignorant about real estate values, pathologically biased against Mr. Trump, or both.
An appellate court should vaporize Judge Engoron’s absurd, sadistic ruling. Those judges should grant Mr. Trump true justice: Acquittal on all of Ms. James’ corrupt charges. That court then should sanction Judge Engoron for blatant, partisan activism masquerading as jurisprudence.
Honest appellate judges should relegate this dumpster fire to the nearest landfill. And they should slap severe, career-crippling sanctions on partisan Democratic tyrants Letitia James and Arthur Engoron.
• Deroy Murdock is a Manhattan-based Fox News contributor.
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