A New York appellate court has significantly reduced a civil judgment against President Donald Trump that was originally set at over $500 million by Judge Arthur Engoron. The appellate court unanimously threw out the substantial monetary penalty and interest.
The original case was brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who had campaigned on pursuing legal action against Trump. The civil lawsuit involved allegations related to property valuations, including Mar-a-Lago, which was assessed at between $18 million and $27.6 million in the proceedings.
During the original trial, witnesses testified that they had not suffered financial losses from their business dealings with Trump and indicated interest in future transactions. The appellate court found insufficient legal and factual basis for the large financial penalty imposed by the lower court.
Some legal commentators, including Judge David Friedman, criticized the application of the underlying statute, noting it had not previously been used in similar commercial transaction cases involving sophisticated parties. Critics argued the penalty violated Eighth Amendment protections against excessive fines. Friedman accused Engoron of participating in an effort clearly directed by James at “ending with the derailment of President Trump’s political career and the destruction of his real estate business.”
Even for some anti-Trump commentators, the judgment was impossible to defend, and some acknowledged that they had never seen any case like this one brought in New York.
The case also imposed business restrictions on the Trump family’s operations in New York, which Trump can appeal. The appellate court’s decision leaves some portions of the original ruling intact while eliminating the major financial penalty.
Democrat New York Attorney General Letitia James had injected lawfare directly into the veins of New Yorkers. Pledging in her campaign to bag Trump (without bothering to name any crime or violation)
Meanwhile…The DOJ has launched a grand jury investigation into Letitia James for”Deprivation of Rights.” She abused her authority by pursuing a politically motivated civil case against President Trump without legal merit, as evidenced by her campaign promises to ‘target Trump’. “Honestly, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.” – Cracker Barrel CEO. Do all these woke liberals lie?
Yo money…It has just been revealed by the CBO that President Trump’s tariffs can reduce the US national deficit by $4 TRILLION over 10 years.
Rut-Roh…NEW: FBI RUSSIA RECORDS
Declassified FBI Records Reveal More Evidence Alleging @Comey Directed Media Leaks To Shape Russia Investigation Narrative
2017 Leak Investigation “Tropic Vortex”
“…Baker (FBI General Counsel) disclosed USG (US Government) classified information to the NYT under the belief he was ultimately instructed and authorized to do so by then FBI Director James Comey…
“Baker indicated FBI Chief of Staff James Rybicki instructed him (Baker) to disclose the information to the NYT, and Baker understood Rybicki was conveying this instruc(tio)n and…on from Comey.”
“Durham Memo recommended NO prosecution of Baker or anyone else for this UPD.”
On President Trump’s 2017 tweet accusing former President Obama of having “my wires tapped” at Trump Tower, the investigation revealed “a proposed statement to the news media…..originated from Comey…”
While unclassified, it is described as a “potentially unauthorized disclosure to the news media which appeared to be at the impi( ) of Comey” Reaching out to the parties for comment. – Catherine Herridge
There may be a sliver of hope for brain dead dems…..Bed Bath & Beyond’s top executive says, “I was wrong” about President Trump. He said his views completely flipped after seeing the White House’s efforts to deregulate business. “I feel very differently today than I used to…And that’s really not an emotional reaction. That’s an intelligent reaction.”
GO WOKE, GO BROKE: Cracker Barrel CEO Julie Felss Masino’s decision to ‘decolonize’ the company starting by removing the old-fashioned country gentleman meant to evoke nostalgia and Americana from the logo is hammering the stock wiping out $250 million in value. Since Felss became CEO the stock is down 34% erasing $587 million in value.
Steak and Shake Chimes in.…Sometimes, people want to change things just to put their own personality on things. At CB, their goal is to just delete the personality altogether. Hence, the elimination of the “old-timer” from the signage. Heritage is what got Cracker Barrel this far, and now the CEO wants to just scrape it all away. At Steak n Shake, we take pride in our history, our families, and American values. All are welcome. We will never market ourselves away from our past in a cheap effort to gain the approval of trend seekers.
Side Eye….MSNBC is not taking the FBI raid on John Bolton’s home well. How dare the FBI raid homes using the exact same reason Biden’s FBI used to raid Trump’s home.
Keep on Truckin”….Anywhere from 1,500 to 3,000 truck drivers have been taken off U.S. highways since June because they can’t speak English or read traffic signs. RKC Logistics reports nearly 300,000 truckers may be noncompliant with government English proficiency standards for truckers—that’s 10% of the 3.5M truckers in the U.S.
There is no data or tracking on how many truckers nationwide are illegal aliens.
19 U.S. states and DC give drivers licenses to illegal aliens, who can then upgrade them to get a commercial license to drive a truck. But those states don’t fully vet if they can read English or traffic signs.
That means they are driving 40-ton trucks but can’t read traffic signs, in violation of the law. Truckers at highway speeds need 400–500 feet to stop. If a driver can’t read a traffic sign, and doesn’t recognize a warning sign, a crash will occur.
President Trump’s June executive order now enforces English proficiency standards for truckers. Former President Barack Obama had suspended enforcement of English proficiency standards in 2016, letting truckers who can’t speak English or read traffic signs stay on the road by instead using things like smartphone translation apps or GPS.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio just stopped worker visas for commercial truck drivers after California and Washington state gave a commercial trucking license to an illegal alien now charged with killing three people in that deadly U-turn crash in Florida. He could only read one out of 4 traffic signs and could only answer just 2 out of 12 English verbal questions.
But he’s not the only one.
Earlier this year, for example, truck driver Sukhjinder Singh jackknifed his truck in the icy Cheat Lake Bridge crash in West Virginia, causing a fatal crash that killed a man. This incident was tied to his not being able to speak English.
And a Cuban-born driver, Rogel Aguilera-Mederos, lost brake control of his truck near Lakewood, CO in 2019, causing a massive crash, multiple fires and explosions that killed four and involved 28 vehicles. A translator was needed during legal proceedings. – Elizabeth MacDonald
About the Author
“Yo money…It has just been revealed by the CBO that President Trump’s tariffs can reduce the US national deficit by $4 TRILLION over 10 years.”
Allow me to clarify something that’s commonly misunderstood. These tariffs aren’t paid by foreign countries. The US adds the tariffs to the prices of goods coming from other countries and US citizens pay them. In other words, despite Republican campaign promises to lower taxes, our taxes increase — just as if a Democrat was in the White House.
Also, don’t confuse the deficit with the total debt, and also don’t confuse “can reduce” with “will reduce.” Give the feds more money and they’ll just spend it all and more.
Considering the amount of new debt the US plans to rack up over the next decade, $4 trillion is actually trivial in comparison.
As for this CBO estimate, no one should every believe any numbers coming from the government, and it doesn’t matter who is in office. By now this is something every citizen should realize. Such numbers are invariably just BS for the gullible.
A couple of quotes we should never forget:
“We Americans are the ultimate innocents. We are forever desperate to believe that this time the government is telling us the truth.”
– The late Sydney Schanberg, NY Times journalist and author of The Killing Fields.
“Look, if you think any American official is going to tell you the truth, then you’re stupid. Did you hear that? — stupid.”
– Arthur Sylvester, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs during the Vietnam War.
Note: Whateva you say, Buckwheat!
If Tariffs crush economies, then why is China, who has high tariffs on ALL Countries, thriving?
IF tariffs DON’T crush economies, dude, tell us all about all the good Smoot-Hawley did for the U.S. economy and the world economy.
Do you even know anything about tariffs?
This nation has had a lot of experience with tariffs going back to when we were still English colonies, and it can well be said, if one bothers to read the Novanglus essays by John Adams written between January and April 1775, just before Lexington and Concord, if anyone in America still remembers that, that King George III’s tariffs on America lost him a jewel in his crown.
And passing over a lot of history in between, because as the CCM has stated or inferred elsewhere, we have had tariffs as a revenue source since the nation was founded and the hapless Alexander Hamilton, who got his **** blown away by Aaron Burr, and the Republicans in this nation have been for high tariffs since we have been a nation, for all the good they have done, given how far in DEBT we now are, as a result of profligate politicians, we come to 1930 and Smoot-Hawley.
When the Smoot-Hawley tariff bill finally passed in June 1930; it raised rates on over 2,000 items, but as a whole, pleased no one.
Over 1000 economists signed an open letter to President Hoover, begging him to veto the bill.
President Hoover was not happy with the Smoot-Hawley bill, especially the increased tariffs on many manufactured goods.
In private, he described it as “vicious, extortionate and obnoxious,” but because it included increased tariffs on agricultural products, he felt compelled to sign it.
Hawley lost re-nomination, while Smoot was one of 12 Republican senators who lost their seats in the 1932 elections, with the swing being the largest in Senate history, being equaled in 1958 and 1980.
And Hoover got defeated and booted from office.
Smoot-Hawley did not cause inflation.
It caused deflation, instead, and it contributed to the deflation and economic collapse during the Great Depression by significantly raising import duties on agricultural and industrial goods.
The Smoot-Hawley Tariff significantly raised prices on imported goods in the U.S., making them unaffordable for many.
In fact, like Trump’s tariffs will likely do, because Trump and Bessent expect us to pony up BILLIONS to pay off the massive federal debt we are being held responsible for, and tariff taxes are how they are going to extort that money from us, Smoot-Hawley raised the price of imports to the point that they became unaffordable for all but the wealthy, so this time around Trump’s BILLIONAIRE MAR-A-LAGO crowd won’t feel themselves pinched like us commoners will, and it dramatically decreased the amount of exported goods, thus contributing to bank failures, particularly in agricultural regions.
The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act also led to a collapse in international cooperation by provoking widespread retaliation from other countries, which imposed their own tariffs in response to the U.S.’s protectionist policies.
This chain reaction of high tariffs, known as a “beggar-thy-neighbor” approach, caused international trade to plummet by about 66% and worsened the Great Depression.
The Act became a symbol of the dangers of protectionism, ultimately ushering in a new era of trade liberalization starting with the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act of 1934.
But, hey, that was then, and as a younger person recently told me, this time, it will be different, so who in the end really knows.
But we do know the damage Smoot-Hawley did, and personally, I would like to hear Trump, who I consider a flannel mouth or gas bag and his stooge Bessent tell us how this time around, it is really going to be different, and I would bet neither could answer the question, because neither has a clue.