New York Judge Arthur F. Engoron wasn't only content with a ruling that former President Donald Trump committed fraud by inflating the value of his assets, but fined his attorneys $7,500 each in a move showing "real venom," according to National Review Institute senior fellow Andrew McCarthy.
"I was a prosecutor for many years, so I can't say I've never seen such overt judicial loathing of a defendant and/or his counsel," McCarthy wrote in an opinion piece for The Messenger.
"But on those rare occasions, one usually finds sociopathic defendants who've committed heinous crimes or lawyers whose tactics skirt the lines of suborning perjury and the like. Here, there is nothing like that. There is just … Trump."
McCarthy wrote that according to judicial decorum, a judge must have a rationale for such actions, and "like a good Democrat," Engoron uses a "stirring defense of the Nanny State."
"Executive Law 65(12)'s purpose, we're told, is not to make victims whole or even ensure good-faith commerce, but rather to empower the government to 'deter wrongdoing,'" McCarthy wrote.
That means that New York Attorney Letitia James, in bringing her lawsuit against Trump and his family, "disgorges embellishers" to deprive people like the Trumps of their "ill-gotten gains," he added.
As a result, McCarthy said, "Engoron and James are not just stripping Trump of his earnings," but sentencing Trump and his organization, without proof of any crimes or damages, under the "corporate death penalty."
McCarthy said Trump lies "a lot," but when it comes to finance, it can result in lawsuits, such as the one brought by James.
But still, the New York State statute at issue in Engoron's ruling is "nightmarishly broad and draconian," said McCarthy.
For one, there are no victims, he continued, noting that no bank or insurance company was brought in to say that Trump ruined them.
"So what, counters Engoron," McCarthy wrote. "The law doesn't require a showing of harm. The state need not prove the defendant even intended to defraud anyone, much less actually defrauded someone."
Engoron found that between 2014 and 2021, Trump and his co-defendants overvalued the organization's assets by between $812 million and $2.2 billion, including overstating the value of his 10,996 square feet of his Trump Tower apartment as 30,000 square feet, pegging its worth as $327 million when the highest sale for a comparable apartment was $88 million.
"Trump was not charged criminally, even though the fraud allegations were closely scrutinized by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office of elected progressive Democrat Alvin Bragg — who did not hesitate to indict Trump over nonsense in a hush-money case," said McCarthy.
But James, who had vowed to use the state's power against Trump, "turned it into the 'crime' of the century," even though there was not enough harm to justify criminal prosecution.
"Whatever you think of Donald Trump, the existential punishment is wildly out of proportion with the negligible harm," said McCarthy. "Progressive Democrats are closing down a long-established business of a man who, before he became their political enemy, was celebrated as an iconic New York real estate broker."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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