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PrintFebruary 22, 2024
It could happen to a Democrat
As I recall reading in one of those books about the ships that sailed the world, be careful with uncharted waters because you might bump into a monster.
Well, let me bring that thought to a current talk show.
Be careful with a crazy judge because he may do something very stupid and make a lot of Democrats very nervous. After all, what stops a partisan judge elsewhere from doing the same thing to a Democrat?
As Byron York just wrote:
Engoron conceded that Trump repaid all his loans in full and on time. There was no one to play the role of victim, no one to testify that Trump cheated him out of anything. The banks didn’t lose money but made money — the precise amounts specified in the loan contracts. But the judge still found misconduct. “It is undisputed that defendants have made all required payments on time,” he wrote. But “timely and total repayment of loans does not extinguish the harm that false statements inflict on the marketplace.”Engoron vowed that by penalizing Trump, “the Court intends to protect the integrity of the financial marketplace and, thus, the public as a whole.” But Engoron did not find that the “public as a whole” had been harmed, either. His decision quoted extensively from a 2014 case that supported the use of “disgorgement,” that is, the government’s taking of millions from a defendant, as an “equitable remedy, notwithstanding the absence of loss to individuals or independent claims for restitution.” The 2014 case said that “the remedy of disgorgement does not require a showing or allegation of direct losses to consumers or the public.” In the Trump matter, no individual lost any money from the loans, and the “public” as a whole did not lose any money from them, either.
No one lost money. As my late father, a career banker, once said that his favorite customer was the one who paid his loans. I guess bankers know what a good customer is but Judge Engoron has a different standard.
The judge's opinion is awful and will have unintended consequences no matter how much the governor of New York assures businesspeople that this only applies to Trump. Really? Does the governor really believe that a Republican businessman is going to fall for that? Even the Democrats among the businessmen are worried.
The judge has also redefined fraud. It used to mean fraud as normal people see it, but now it applies differently to Republicans. Good luck attracting new investment or stopping people and the businesses they built from leaving.
Let's hope they shoot this nonsense down on appeal. Let's hope so for the benefit of New York or the massive decline will continue.
