In a ruling on the civil case brought against Trump and his company by Letitia James, New York Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron found Trump and liable for more than $350 million in damages and barred him from operating his business in New York for three years. Further, his two adult sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, were barred from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation or legal entity
Now, legal experts are weighing in and arguing, according to Fox News Digital, that such rulings might encourage businesses to flee from the “legal banana republic” that New York has become under consistently leftist leadership.
Among them was former Bush White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, who said that the Trump Organization now might leave New York for Florida. He said, “If you’re Eric [or] Donald Junior, what are you going to do?” He continued, “[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 – you’re seeing that in the business community and among upper income New Yorkers already.”
Fleischer went on to add, “There’s very little pressure pushing back on these politicians here (in New York) to stop doing it because it’s wrong.” He then said that New York has become a “legal banana republic” unless the appeals courts stop this unjust ruling, saying, “So unless the appeals process in New York comes to the rescue, it’s become a legal banana republic.”
Fleischer was far from the only one. George Washington University Law Prof. Jonathan Turley said that the ruling is “an odd one because it does not require that anyone actually lose money. And so James was able to come in here with this [fraud] figure, and she kept on going up.” Continuing, he added, “when you’re imposing fines larger than the budget of some countries, you really have to wonder whether you’ve allowed your thoughts to run away with your judgment.”
Turley went on to note, like Fleischer, that the decision might well encourage businesses to flee to Florida. He said, “It’s one of the greatest ironies of this case: 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’.”
Trump, for his part, said, “This Election Interference and tyrannical Abuse of Power by a Crooked Judge and Crooked Attorney General cannot be tolerated. My case was already won in the Appellate Division, and more than 80% of the frivolous claims were wiped out. Yet, as I suspected, and in order to hurt me and the Republican Party politically, Crooked and Corrupt Judge Arthur Engoron ignored his loss at the Appellate Division, and came up with an outrageous $355 Million Dollar fine against me. Using a statute that has never been applied like this before, the Corrupt Judge conspired with the Crooked Attorney General, Letitia James, and punished a liquid and beautiful Corporate Empire that started in New York, and has been successful all around the world…..”
He added, “There were no victims, and not one person testified there was any fraud. The actual witnesses established my Net Worth exceeded that reported in my Financial Statements as those Statements never included my most valuable Asset – the TRUMP Brand. The Highly Respected Expert Witness said my Financial Statements were among the best he has ever seen. I paid over $300 Million Dollars in taxes to New York City and State, and they want me gone. They are Crazed Lunatics who are destroying everything in their way. It all starts with Biden’s attacks on his Political Opponent!”
Watch Trump sound off on the ruling here:
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