“In laying the foundation for his sweeping decision against former President Donald Trump, Judge Arthur Engoron observed that ‘this is a venial sin, not a mortal sin.’ Yet, at $355 million, one would think that Engoron had found Trump to be the source of Original Sin. The judgment against Trump (and his family and associates) was met with a level of unrestrained celebration by many in New York that bordered on the indecent. Attorney General Letitia James declared not only that Trump would be barred from doing business in New York for three years, but that the damages would come to roughly $460 million once interest was included,” writes right wing “legal expert” Jonathan Turley in a Saturday op-ed posted at TheHill.com, whose terrible reputation stems largely from its employ of jackasses like Turley, though amazingly he’s among the least offensive in the site’s sordid history.
“That makes the damages against Trump greater than the gross national product of some countries, including Micronesia. Yet the court admitted that not a single dollar was lost by the banks from these dealings” and blah blah blah, Turley continues in the piece. Really the only value here to National Zero in this jeremiad is to highlight one of the softer wails of pain over the costly verdict.