I'm not fan of Trump, but a $350 million fine and more is beyond ridiculous.
Stupid. Laughable. Preposterous. Jarring. There aren’t enough words to describe this insanity:
New York Justice Arthur F. Engoron, ordered former President Donald Trump to pay a fine of $355 million for the judge’s bizarre ruling that Trump victimized some big banks.
He also:
Banned Trump acting as a top executive of his or any New York company.
Extended for three years and enhanced the power of a monitor who rides herd on the Trump businesses.
Ordered Trump’s two sons to pay $4 million each as well as banning them from serving as a top executive of New York companies.
The huge, exorbitant fine raises questions, according to the New York Times, about the very viability of the Trump businesses by eating up all his available cash. At worst, it could bankrupt his companies. No doubt the judge’s intent was to drive Trump out of business
Never mind that none of the lenders said they were victimized. The loans were made and paid off. What underlies the judge’s ruling is the fatuous idea that the lenders did not do their due diligence.
Needless to say, Engoron is a Democrat appointed by a Democratic governor. Not that that matters, right? Which means that MSNBC, CNN, the Times, Washington Post, etc., will see nothing odd about the dart the judge has thrown at Trump’s livelihood.
The judge had earlier convicted Trump, but even before then, he expressed an anti-Trump bias. Never mind that the prosecutor, a Democrat, campaigned on a get-Trump platform. Today’s ruling is only about how much Trump should pay. Even the New York Times said, in a vast understatement, that Engoron has an “unconventional style.”
Thankfully, the judge didn’t sentence Trump to be hung, drawn and quartered, perhaps only because New York law doesn’t allow it.
None of the banks testified that they were deceived or lost money on the loans. It buggers the imagination that the lenders didn’t do their due diligence when handing over millions of dollars. Just as when any of us apply for a mortgage, the bank looks into every, well, orifice.
In addition to a get-Trump mindset, the judge was pissed because T’rump didn’t come crawling into the courtroom. In a snit, he said, “Their [the defendants’] complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological.” Does he mean that defendants must humbly express contrition for crimes they didn’t admit?
This is a politically inspired hit job. Cheering Democrats must believe that this raw exercise of political power will work against Trump’s re-election. Hardly.If anything, it’ll win Trump even more votes. The ruling amounts to more evidence that 92-counts of criminal and civil charges against Trump are politically motivated and engineered by outrageously biased prosecutors.
Obviously, knifing Trump is more important to Democrats than the damage it does to the already godawful business climate in New York. Gee, why are so many businesses abandoning New York?
America’s system of justice is based on its neutrality—a blindfolded Lady Justice. Can there be any doubt now about the truth of Republicans’ charge that there is a “two-tiered form of justice” under the Biden administration?