AG James' Pyrrhic Victory
"A Loser State"
Says "Mr. Wonderful"
They're Commies
Where Is The New York Bar
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Letitia James' "victory" will only inflict devastation upon New York
A Pyrrhic victory is a victory that inflicts such a devastating toll on the victor
that it is tantamount to defeat
A travesty of justice
New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron has ruled that Trump, his sons and his companies must pay millions of dollars to the state of New York. The total amount is more than $454 million with interest and must be paid within thirty days. This amount increases by $87,500 daily until Trump pays. Engoron also barred Trump from “serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation or other legal entity in New York” for three years and Attorney General Letitia James has vowed to seize Trump’s assets, including his buildings in New York if he cannot pay.
Trump’s sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, were found liable for $4,013,024 each and are similarly banned from doing business in New York for two years.
There's no merit to this completely insane ruling, which wasn't based on the word of a jury, but instead the personal bias of a man who probably shouldn't be allowed to be a judge in the first place.
Trump, the Republican frontrunner for the 2024 presidential race, is also barred from "applying for loans from any financial institution chartered by or registered with the New York Department of Financial Services for a period of three years,” which complicate his stated effort to appeal these civil penalties against him in this and other cases.
Remember, Engoron found Trump guilty of James’s charges on the very first day of the trial -- before any witnesses were heard or any evidence presented -- this "trial" was only intended to assess what tuned out to be these Draconian penalties, but even these aren't enough for James, who told ABC News on Tuesday that she will seek to seize some of the former president’s assets if he’s unable to pay the excessive and unconstitutional fine.
All of this may turn out to be a Pyrrhic victory for James, Engoron and the Trump haters. They did not factor in the unintended consequences of a sudden exodus of New York's real estate developers. They have had it with the deep blue city, its corrupted system of justice, and the kangaroo courts in which there is no longer be any expectation of receiving a fair trial.
The process is the punishment
Two of Trump’s attorneys who handled the case, Chris Kise and Alina Habba, slammed the decision on Friday, with Kise likening the ruling to a “corporate death penalty.”
“Legal cases are supposed to be decided based on the application of established legal principles to the actual evidence. During forty-four days of trial, not one witness, not one complaint, and not one victim supported the Attorney General’s manufactured claims of ‘fraud.’ Moreover, the evidence established President Trump’s net worth far exceeded what was reported in his financial statements. Even the bankers actually involved in the loans testified there was nothing misleading, there was no fraud, and the transactions were all highly profitable."
It isn't only Trump's attorneys that are outraged. New York's commercial real estate developers are bullsh!t -- and they're packing their bags!
"Mr. Wonderful" says, "I’m shocked!"
The Shark Tank's "Mr. Wonderful," Kevin O’Leary, called New York "a loser state" and said he would never invest in New York now.
“This award, I mean, just leaving the whole Trump thing out of it and seeing what occurred here and I’m no different than any other investor, I’m shocked at this. I can’t even understand or fathom the decision at all. There’s no rationale for it.”
And O'Leary is not alone!
Real estate mogul Grant Cardone says he's done
Prominent real estate mogul Grant Cardone announced on Tuesday that his firm Cardone Capital would no longer underwrite New York real estate. Cardone ordered his firm in a post on "X" to:
The Sell or Be Sold author explained his decision on Wednesday in an interview with Fox & Friends.
“When that [Trump] ruling happened, it was like, ‘pencils down,'”
“We invest for 14,000 investors at Cardone Capital that depend on cash flow,” Cardone said. “And if I can’t predict the cash flow because of some ruling, or because of the migrants, or because I can’t evict people, New York City just keeps doing every single thing they can to sell real estate in Florida, not sell real estate in New York.”
Serial entrepreneur Tony Seruga says "any company can be targeted"
Tony Seruga states publicly that he has lost count of how many companies he has started, those that are responsible for his day to day operations know that number to be somewhere above 240, much more astounding is the fact that over 70% of Tony’s start ups have been successful.
Seruga says that many think they are experts in everything. They’re not. Those of us who actually attended law school and have been doing commercial real estate for over forty years, are telling you, you’ve been lied to. You do not have the facts. You do not know what you are talking about. We employ two of the largest law firms in the country and they’ve been in meetings sixteen hours a day in order to determine just how bad this all really is.
Every one of these companies, representing trillions of dollars in real estate, is carefully evaluating whether to stay or exit.
Chetrit Group; Vorea Group; Turnbridge Equities; Extell Development; Bldg Management Company; Vornado Realty Trust; L+m Development Partners; United Construction And Development Group; Beb Capital; Totem; Howard Hughes Corporation; Starrett Corporation; RFR Realty; Jay Group; Property Markets Group; Rabsky Group; Two Trees Management; Heartfelt Townhouse Builders; Lonicera Partners; Taconic Partners; The Beitel Group
Whether Trump wins on appeal or at SCOTUS, the precedent has been set. A wall has been broken and there are no take backs. Any company can now be targeted and have their assets seized at the whim of an over zealous attorney general or politician. Civilians aren't expected to know or understand standard commercial real estate practices, but every company above could be found guilty of the exact same actions The Trump Organization was accused of and found guilty of, because it is NOT a crime.
Companies were already fleeing New York
There is a giant, sucking sound coming out of Wall Street -- and it’s siphoning staggering sums of money out of the Big Apple while handing businesses to Florida and other states farther south.
Nearly 160 Wall Street firms have moved their headquarters out of New York since Joe Biden occupied the White House, taking nearly $1 trillion -- yes, that’s trillion with a “T” -- in assets under management with them, according to data compiled by Bloomberg of 17,000 companies.
Looking to dodge rampant crime, stiff taxes and an increasingly exorbitant cost of living, 158 fed-up financial firms representing a whopping $993 billion in assets have packed up and left the Big Apple, taking thousands of high-paid employees with them, the data shows.
Icahn Capital Management -- headed by billionaire corporate raider Carl Icahn -- is among the most prominent firms to decamp to the Sunshine State. The firm ditched its posh Manhattan digs atop Fifth Avenue’s General Motors Building in favor of a 14-story office complex in a Miami suburb.
Icahn’s firm, which manages $22.2 billion in assets, now conducts business less than a mile away from his mansion in Indian Creek Village in Florida.
The banks see the handwriting on the wall
Charles Gasparino says the men and women who run New York's big banks see what’s happening to Donald Trump in the byzantine prosecution and the over-the-top penalties They know they could be next -- unless of course, they get out of Gotham, and fast.
That’s the word Gasparino is getting from top executives at financial services firms, who paid close attention to the Trump case because of its broad implications for their own companies.
For years they’ve eyed the New York State Attorney General’s Office as a nuisance, its occupant using state laws that give it wide latitude to prosecute financial crimes for political advancement.
“It’s embarrassing that this is what you have to put up with to do business here. We look like idiots staying here.”
They can’t believe James was able to turn a nothing-burger case into a $355 million judgment -- and windfall for New York's treasury.
The governor says, "no worries!"
Democrat governor, Kathy Hochul, attempted to quell the fears flagged by Empire State investors in a radio interview, telling business owners there is nothing to worry about after the Trump verdict.
“Law-abiding and rule-following New Yorkers who are businesspeople have nothing to worry about because they’re very different than Donald Trump and his behavior. Trump’s fraud case resulted from extraordinary, unusual circumstances.”
Those circumstances being that every state and national poll shows that Donald Trump will defeat Joe Biden in November. Everybody knows what's going on. This isn't a secret.
It’s really death by a thousand cuts in New York State. What companies see is fees, taxes, surcharges on just about everything, and overtime that adds up. Then, a company looks at what its competition is doing in another state and says:
“You know what? I’m at a competitive disadvantage being here in New York. If I relocate my company, we get to keep more of what we earn, more what we worked for.“
What comes next?
Trump has less than a month to make his next move of appealing the decision in a process that could extend into 2025, according to legal experts. Here’s what to expect:
Trump's attorneys may appeal the massive judgment against him could be that the statute he was prosecuted under, New York’s business law, was not intended to apply to business transactions involving sophisticated financial actors, but rather for consumer fraud cases.
Trump could see success that he was subjectively targeted for the lawsuit that the state would not bring against a similarly situated defendant. It’s “common” for trial court judgments to be lowered on appeal even if a defendant fails to reverse a complete judgment.
Trump could succeed on the 8th Amendment argument of the “damages being disproportionate,” because the state would have to show the evidence supporting the damages. It can’t use speculative damages.
The Wild Card
Last night, Trump easily defeated Nikki Haley in her home state of South Carolina -- despite Democrats voting in masses for Haley -- extending his winning streak as he marches toward a third consecutive presidential nomination.
Should Trump run the table on Super Tuesday, which is only nine days away, on March 5th, will the Supreme Court finally step in and end what tens of millions in the country see as the Democratic Party's election interference?
Sooner or later, that "elephant in the room" has to be dealt with. It simply cannot be ignored. It is what it is.
Trump should win this contest against Joe Biden, but dealing with Democrats, nothing can be taken for granted -- and then, hopefully -- James and Engoron and the others will get their just deserts.
John Hancock had to risk everything that he had and George Washington had to survive Valley Forge to build this great nation.
It appears that Donald Trump must risk it all and survive these corruptocrats to save it.
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