Trump's 'breathtaking' fine in fraud case is larger than budgets of some countries: Jonathan Turley
Fox News contributors Jonathan Turley and Ari Fleischer join chief legal correspondent Shannon Bream to react to Judge Arthur Engoron fining Donald Trump more than $350 million on 'The Story.'
Legal experts analyzed what they called "breathtaking" civil penalties against former President Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, former Trump Organization Comptroller Jeffrey McConney and ex-CFO Allen Weisselberg – warning other corporations based in the Empire State may realize they could suddenly be put out of business by the state on a political whim.
New York Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron found Trump liable for more than $350 million in damages in the fraud suit brought against him and his company by New York State Democratic District Attorney Letitia James.
Trump Sr., the Trump Revocable Trust and Trump Organization were found liable for $60 million, while Trump's sons and Weisselberg were found liable for $4.01 million each – and Trump Sr. plus several entities including the Trump Organization and the LLC signifying Trump's Chicago hotel were banned from applying for loans with institutions registered with New York for three years.
The three Trump family members were also banned from serving as executives of any business or legal entity based in New York for a similar length – which is key, as the Trump Organization is housed at its iconic tower at 5 Av and E. 57th Street.
In that regard, former Bush White House press secretary Ari Fleischer told Fox News the ban may spur Trump to relocate his entire business empire to Florida, just as he has his primary residence.
"If you're Eric [or] Donald Junior, what are you going to do?" he asked.
"[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," he said – adding the state's crime wave accentuates the issue.
George Washington University Law Prof. Jonathan Turley further commented to Fox News that Engoron appeared to compound the highest fine figures in most of the areas adjudicated – noting that New York's civil law in this area is unique because the proverbial crime can essentially be victimless.
"[It's] 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."
Turley said the public and other legal officials may indeed take note of Trump world's penalty, because, "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."
"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’."
Fleischer noted that New York's justice system has descended into a quasi-political entity, in that liberals and Democrats have been placed at the highest levers of power for the past few decades.
A young Donald Trump stands outside his namesake 5 Av tower, headquarters of the Trump Organization (Getty )
He noted that New York County, which is Engoron's purview and contains Manhattan Island and Marble Hill, has voted on average 85 percent to 15 percent Democratic in presidential elections going back to his former boss Bush's first race in 2000.
New York State hasn't awarded its electoral votes to a Republican since Ronald Reagan, and only sided substantively with a losing GOP candidate once: when Thruway namesake Gov. Thomas Dewey lost to President Harry Truman in 1948.
Fleischer called Engoron's ruling a legal extension of liberal activists successfully pressing to have Trump's name stripped from buildings in New York City.
Officials have also squabbled over land Trump had donated to New York State for parkland. To signify the 2006 gift, 436 acres in Westchester County were named "Donald J. Trump State Park" and large signage was posted on the nearby Taconic Parkway.
In what WCBS reported to be the seventh attempt to strip Trump's name from the park, State Sen. Brad Hoylman, D-Greenwich Village put forward legislation to do so last year.
Residents of a high-rise in then-Rep. Jerry Nadler's, D-N.Y. district in 2016 voted to strip Trump's name from their complex, as Trump later took to X – then Twitter – to rail against the lawmaker's long-ago fight with him over the land when the then-Judiciary chairman launched the Russia probe.
"There's very little pressure pushing back on these politicians here (in New York) to stop doing it because it's wrong," Fleischer added.
"So unless the appeals process in New York comes to the rescue, it's become a legal banana republic."
Turley told "The Story" that when Trump very likely appeals the decision, the appellate court – which is higher than the districted Supreme Court in New York – will have to determine whether the former president was subject to a selective prosecution.
He pointed to James' campaign promises which included plans to "be a real pain in [Trump's] a--."
"Clearly, James made this pledge that she was going to bag Donald Trump. 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."