George Washington University Law School professor Jonathan Turley opposes Judge Engoron’s decision to order former President Donald Trump to pay more than $350 million in damages after he, his two sons and the Trump Organization were found guilty of financial fraud.
In his op-ed piece in The Hill — ‘Obscene award against Trump is testing the New York legal system’s integrity’ — Turley repeats two of Trump’s defenses: “Undervaluing and overvaluing property is a longstanding practice in New York real estate” and doing so is a victimless crime (“…the court admitted that not a single dollar was lost by the banks from these dealings,” Turley asserts).
Turley shared a link to the article on X and wrote: “After this type of corporate public execution, it is hard to imagine many businesses rushing to the Big Apple. Drawing new businesses to the city is going to be about as easy as selling country estates during the French Revolution.”
The below tweet is stupid. Enforcing the law doesn’t deter business. Quite the opposite. America attracts businesses and investors because we have the rule of law. We are not a cult.
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) February 18, 2024
Also, corporations don’t go to NY because they think it’s easier to defraud banks. https://t.co/fejuz2VEKB
U.S. Congressman Ted Lieu (D-CA), who is also a lawyer, replied to Turley’s statement: “The below tweet is stupid. Enforcing the law doesn’t deter business. Quite the opposite. America attracts businesses and investors because we have the rule of law. We are not a cult. Also, corporations don’t go to NY because they think it’s easier to defraud banks.”
Note: Turley testified before Congress on Trump’s behalf during the president’s first impeachment trial in 2019, saying there was no “compelling evidence” that Trump committed a crime. Turley declined to represent Trump at his second impeachment trial in 2021, telling the Washington Post that “Trump could harm his own case if he insists on arguing that voter fraud cost him the election.”
Turley also testified at a September House Oversight Committee impeachment inquiry hearing on President Biden, where he said he did not believe the “current evidence presented against President Biden warrants articles of impeachment, but [it] is deserving of an impeachment inquiry.”
[Note: On Thursday, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee, demanded that the House GOP end its “fraudulent” impeachment inquiry into Biden after Special Counsel David Weiss indicted witness Alexander Smirnov for allegedly making false statements to the FBI.]
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