Legal analyst and Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley shared on Monday that an unusual New York state law could disadvantage former President Donald Trump as he fights a civil suit brought forward by Democratic Attorney General Letitia James.
RTM previously reported that Trump and James were in court today as the civil suit moves forward.
Commenting on Monday’s proceedings, Turley said Trump will likely be able to use video of the courtroom, which showed the judge and members of the prosecution team smiling, to his advantage, Turley said, “Viewers will either be enraged or will be thrilled” by what they see.
Before speaking about an unusual law that could be problematic for Trump, Turley said:
“You have James now being shown in the background. You have Trump in the foreground and it fulfills the narrative on both sides. Trump is likely right, I mean, he is being shown in a sort of tag team series of prosecutions and civil lawsuits where one prosecutor tags another.”
Turley added: “They are all insisting on these trials occurring before the election. There are many people who find that troubling. And so he is right in that, I think that it is not going to do much in terms of his standing in the election.”
Trump’s legal team has pointed out that though James claimed individuals, businesses and banks were defrauded by Trump’s business practices, no person or entity has made such a claim.
Turley pointed out that under an unusual provision in New York state law, which he called “wicked,” showing that people were defrauded or lost money or even showing intent to defraud is not necessary for the state to prosecute.
The constitutional law expert explained:
“The problem that he has is this New York law that the New York law is different from most jurisdictions. He has been prosecuted with what’s called a section 63.12 action. You don’t need to show intent to defraud and you don’t need to show that people lost money.
I think a lot of people will look at that and go ‘Well, why have all of these proceedings, this huge effort if no money was lost?’ But it gets more wicked from there because the state can what’s called disgorge profit even though people didn’t lose money.”
“So in a case like Ernst & Young and other cases, they were able to get millions of dollars to disgorge the process even though those weren’t damages to anyone in particular.”
“So this is not what most people think of when they hear that someone has defrauded. The state here is saying we want the profits because there is a pattern of fraudulent representation.”
Many believe Trump will be convicted by the New York court but will win on appeal.
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