Darrell Castle talks about the recent verdict in New York in which Judge Arthur Engoron imposed a fine against Donald Trump of about $355 million accelerating the total to about $455 million with interest.

Transcription / Notes

NEW YORK SENDS THE DEPLORABLES A MESSAGE

Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 23rd day of February in the year of our Lord 2024. I will be talking about the recent verdict in New York in which Judge Arthur Engoron imposed a fine against Donald Trump of about $355 million accelerating the total to about $455 million with interest. The fine was for a verdict of civil fraud and as the law normally defines fraud what Trump did was not fraud because no one was injured and there was no victim. This case demonstrates that in New York and certain other Democrat cities, the law is a political weapon and not a protection.

I have loved New York for my entire life or at least what I can remember of it. The Yankees have always been my team and Mickey Mantle my favorite athlete of all those who have played there over the years. New York used to be the most exciting and wondrous place in the world but that was before the city and state were turned over to those who view the law as nothing but a weapon to be used against political enemies.

For purposes of this report, it doesn’t matter if you hate Donald Trump, if you think he is a threat to democracy, that he wants to become a dictator, that he tried to overthrow the U.S. Government by force, or whatever he is in your mind. Through whatever lens you view Donald Trump, it is impossible, if you are familiar at all with the lawsuits and prosecutions against him, to see them as anything but a distortion and perversion of our legal system to achieve a political goal.

A brief review of the “fraud” he supposedly committed is roughly like this. A real estate developer builds a building that he says is worth $400 million. He goes to a bank for a loan and the bank does its own due diligence and says no, it’s only worth $200 million and to make sure the bank is safe we will only loan you $150 million. It is basically just negotiating or haggling and it is done every day in business up and down the line from the biggest to the smallest deals. If you want to sell your house and you value it at $300 thousand but the bank says no, only $250 thousand that is essentially what happened.

If that scenario I just presented is fraud, then every real estate investor across the country should have his assets looted by every corrupt prosecutor and judge in every American city. The other thing I will point out is that fraud normally requires a victim. Someone must be defrauded or lose money and no one lost a penny in any of Trump’s deals that were the subject of the lawsuit. In fact, the banks with whom he supposedly committed civil fraud, testified in his favor at trial and said they wanted more business from him. Deutsche Bank, which loaned him hundreds of millions testified that it always used its own guidelines when making these loans.

So, New York prosecutor Letitia James contended that Trump deceived lenders and insurers by giving them overstated financial statements. The banks testified that they reviewed all documents and financial statements and found them to be acceptable and furthermore they made money, lost nothing, and wanted more of Trump’s business. Sometimes the banks pegged his net worth lower than he did but did not find that to be alarming or even unusual. It is common practice in the real estate world. Even the New York Times said that it could not find a single case in history where this statute was used against an individual or company that left no financial victims.

So, once again, this is not about Trump but the American system of law and justice. The foremost reason that capitalism works better than socialism or Marxism is that in the American system individuals have rights.