New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) addressed New York business owners in a new interview and told them there was “nothing to worry about” after former President Trump was hit with a $355 million fine and a ban on conducting business in New York for three years.
This is a pattern of lawfare being conducted by various District Attorneys across the nation, attempting to use the law in novel and unusual ways in order to bring cases of dubious merit in an attempt to take ideological opponents out of politics. It is an example where the process is the punishment. Even if the opponent wins all the cases, a not impossible outcome, it will take years and millions of dollars.
Winning the legal cases is almost irrelevant to the effectiveness of the political strategy of tying up your opponent in baseless cases.
The case brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis against Donald Trump has the hallmarks of an imminent implosion. Others have stalled. The New York case is a big nominal win for the DA there but is unlikely to survive independent scrutiny higher up the judicial chain.
And as pertinently, the reckless disregard of Classical Liberal norms is beginning to generate unanticipated consequences. At least, unanticipated by those who barely muster the capability for considering even first order consequences.
With their nominal win of a targeted case, using novel interpretations of the law and unprecedented judgments against Trump, New York has demonstrated that there might not be much basis for confidence in the rule of law, due process, and equality before the law, three corner stones of the Classical Liberal tradition.
Political partisans have been cheering the decision but business men have sat up and taken notice. And nothing gets the attention of power hungry politicians like wealthy business people leaving the state.
Hochul comments sure sound like a belated effort to reassure businessmen that they have nothing to fear, that this was just a case against Trump, not a change in policy against all businesses. But there is no stopping principal to the decision. What was done to Trump can be done to anyone.
"First they came ..." by German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) regarding the lead up to World War II with the creeping expansion of state power.
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a socialist.Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a trade unionist.Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a Jew.Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
Everyone has now noticed, First they came for Trump. They are wondering whether they need to leave or speak out and Hochul is admitting what has happened.
“I think that this is really an extraordinary, unusual circumstance that the law-abiding and rule-following New Yorkers who are business people have nothing to worry about, because they’re very different than Donald Trump and his behavior,” Hochul responded.
She says this is just about a political vendetta against Trump and is not a change in the administration of the law. But given that there is no identified victim and no crime as known from common experience, everyone has to wonder, who's next? Once they choose to destroy you, they have now shown that they are willing and able to destroy you. Governor Hochul is trying to reassuring them it is only Trump that warranted this unusual and extralegal approach.
Not a particularly reassuring admission.
The governor provided reassurance to New York businesses after the ruling. “By and large, they are honest people and they’re not trying to hide their assets and they’re following the rules,” she said of the people who own and conduct business in the New York City area.
"By and large . . ." is a pretty expansive loophole. You don't have to worry if your are not a Socialist, Trade Unionist, a Jew or Trump. Trust us.
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