After former President Trump was given a slight respite by an appeals court that reduced his bond amount in his New York civil fraud case, observers Monday characterized his legal troubles as essentially committing the “crime” of “running for president.”
After his original $454 million bond imposed by State Supreme Court District Judge Arthur Engoron was cut by 60 percent, Trump blasted another state judge for scheduling an April 15 hearing date for his hush-money case involving pornographic actress Stormy Daniels and his fixer-turned-foe Michael Cohen.
On Monday afternoon, former George W. Bush presidential speechwriter Marc Thiessen remarked it appeared the Empire State judiciary may have actually helped itself by lowering the bond amount.
“I think they ought to be relieved because if this judgment had not been lowered and Trump couldn’t meet it – if you want to make sure that Donald Trump is elected president of the United States, go let [State Attorney General] Letitia James walk up to Trump Tower and stamp an eviction notice on the side of that building and seize it,” he said.
James has notably quipped that she casts her gaze on Trump’s “40 Wall Street” office building every day from her Lower Manhattan office. The attorney general has made no secret of her determination to “get” Trump, and critics say even detractors would be turned off by James’ open partisanship.
“Even people who don’t support Donald Trump would see that as an outrage,” Thiessen said of the seizures floated by an eager James.
In public remarks earlier Monday, Trump claimed Engoron was either unskilled at valuations or intentionally trying to hurt him at James’ whim.
“[It] is a victimless crime – the crime he’s guilty of is running for president. None of this would be happening if Donald Trump wasn’t running for president,” Thiessen said, adding that if Trump’s cases in multiple states were combined, he currently faces more charges than some murderous cult leaders.
“They’ve issued 91 indictments against Donald Trump. Charles Manson faced 10,” he said. “They’ve got multiple cases trying to bankrupt him. They’re trying to use the 14th Amendment to kick him off of the ballot. I’ve never seen such collusion between the left on the federal state and local level working together in concert to destroy a man.”
In his remarks, Trump also knocked the jurist in his Stormy Daniels suit, Judge Juan Merchan, calling him a “Democrat judge.” In his previous post on Bronx County Family Court, Merchan had been appointed by then Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
On “The Story,” former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy – whom Trump name-dropped during his public remarks, praising his past analyses of his case – said the state of New York decreasing the former president’s bond was the right thing to do.
“It’s an existential event for him financially because it’s not just the monetary penalty, they’re trying to put him out of business,” he said, adding that, if calculated for the initial $454 million amount, Trump would further owe about $112,000 per day in interest.
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WhileTrump’s top television critics, like former Rep. Joe Scarborough, R-Fla. and the hosts of ABC’s “The View,” have been crowing about Trump’s legal troubles for some time, former Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker said there have been too many people excited to see the GOP nominee potentially taken down financially.
“It should not be dependent on who the defendant is for what kind of justice is meted out,” Whitaker said, calling Engoron’s initial bond levy “pulled out of thin air.”
“This is a small victory to reduce this amount, but it’s still just a complete miscarriage of justice.”