As detailed here Friday night, the astonishing $83.3 million defamation verdict against Donald Trump, arrived at by a New York jury in the federal E. Jean Carroll II trial, involved only defamation damages claims, not a sexual-assault claim — the nub of the Carroll I case, in which a different New York jury awarded just $5 million. Fresh off that, the former president is now facing the near certainty that New York state judge Arthur Engoron, an elected progressive Democrat, will enter a verdict against Trump in the neighborhood of the $370 million sought by New York attorney general Letitia James, an elected Democrat.
Toward that end, the New York Times is fanning the flames with a report that the monitor appointed by Engoron has found some “deficiencies” in the financial reporting by the Trump organization. According to the Gray Lady, the monitor, former federal judge Barbara Jones (an old friend of mine) filed a report last week, highlighting “several paperwork issues at a family company trying to shake a legacy of sloppiness.” These are said to include missing disclosures, typos, math errors and questions about a $48 million loan between Mr. Trump and one of his companies.” Why . . . there may even be “a lack of adequate internal controls” — the horror!
To repeat what I’ve observed any number of times, there are no victims in New York’s hyper-politicized civil fraud case against Trump — which is the case that the state’s criminal prosecutors evaluated for years and opted not to bring. Before the start of the case with no victims, Engoron found Trump guilty of persistent fraud and James sought a disgorgement penalty of $250 million, in addition to putting Trump out of business. After eleven weeks of trial, and still no victims, James upped the disgorgement ante to $370 million.
I have no quarrel with the notion that, if Trump really had a pattern of inflating his assets, some stiff fine might be appropriate — a few hundred thousand dollars? A million dollars? Perhaps . . . as long as New York could show that similarly situated companies have been treated the same way.
But look at what’s happening here. Trump’s political enemies in New York’s government are turning a victimless molehill into $370 million; and Trump’s enemies in the media are suggesting that something along those otherworldly lines may be justified because of “several paperwork issues.”
Truly Twilight Zone stuff. No matter how you feel about Trump, why would anyone do business in New York if these are the risks you must run?