Some relief that Trump's appeal bond was reduced, but it's not enough

I suppose we're supposed to be happy that a New York appeals court reduced the amount of bond President Trump must post, just for the 'privilege' of appealing New York's outrageous, excessive, utterly vindictive, $454 million fine over a victimless crime from the state's little kangaroo court.

According to Fox News:

An appeals court slashed former President Trump's bond payment on Monday, saying Trump must pay $175 million within the next 10 days.

Trump had previously faced a Monday deadline to pay a $454 million bond payment that came as a result of civil fraud allegations from New York Attorney General Letitia James.

A New York Appeals Court, hours before the deadline to post the $454 million, lowered that bond considerably. The court ordered that Trump post $175 million within 10 days. 

Trump said he will "abide" by the appeals decision and post the $175 million bond. 

If Trump does post the $175 million by the new deadline, it would effectively block James from attempts to seize Trump's assets as he continues to appeal the judgment by New York Judge Arthur Engoron.

Supposedly, Trump overvalued his assets to get loans, which isn't a 'crime' anyone else prosecutes, because there weren't any victims. Both borrower and lender were happy with their deal, and Trump paid back the loans in full and on time. Now the banks are angling to do more business with him.

But none of that mattered in that crummy, politicized courtroom, where the leering, giggling, judge, Arthur Engoron, and his rabid fanatic prosecutor, Leticia James, both known Trump-haters, dropped every rule of decency and judicial restraint. They dished out a draconian and ruinous fine from numbers they pulled out of the air, just because they could. For perspective, Bernie Madoff, who defrauded many people of their life savings and left a string of victims, was fined a mere $10 million.

$454 million, payable in full, just to be able to appeal? That's Soviet. It's also unconstitutional, going directly against the Eighth Amendment, which reads:

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Crazed, "get Trump" fanatics don't care about such niceties.

The appeals court, which no one expected to be any different from Engoron and James, mildly surprised by at least alleviating the draconian fine and insane bond requirement in order to appeal the unjust verdict. At least Trump won't be ruined.

But $175 million is still a lot of money and Trump won't have the use of it for months and months as his antagonists seek to delay those appeals forever, basically stealing it for awhile or longer if Trump's appeals up to the Supreme Court fall on deaf ears.

Which is why the $175 million bond Trump must post is still too much. Legal scholar Jonathan Turley noted that the bond could have been reduced to nothing, actually. It should have been. It would have been the only just amount, actually.

So, one cheer for the appeals court, not three. As Trump continues to rise in the polls, the court seemed to opt to reduce the bond so as to appear reasonable to the public, rather than be fair to Trump.

Everyone could see what was happening -- the Engoron court was out of its mind, the public was reacting by rallying to Trump in a sympathy vote, and the court's move must have indicated that it didn't want to be seen as arbitrary tyrants making it up as they went along and driving not just Trump, but a whole array of other businesses out of New York.

It's good, but it's not enough. Until the New York courts can give justice to Trump, the public will just keep joining him all the way to Election Day.

Image: Pixabay / Pixabay License

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