Back in 2020, James massively stretched consumer protection law to gin up a case surrounding the Trump Organization’s dealing years earlier with Deutsche Bank, alleging that optimistic valuations of Trump properties somehow deceived the bankers into giving Trump overly generous loan terms.

The ensuing investigation and trial made it plain that nobody was harmed — indeed, everyone on the non-Trump side of the table made money.

But that didn’t stop Engoron from issuing a host of dubious rulings, culminating in a finding of guilt and a preposterous $454 million penalty (including interest) in February 2024, a number that continues to grow each day it goes unpaid. //

And when a five-judge panel of the First Department heard the case in September, Justice Peter Moulton put it bluntly: “The immense penalty in this case is troubling,” because “the parties left these transactions happy.”

Justice David Friedman pointed out, “No one lost any money,” and consumer protection statutes don’t normally apply to “really sophisticated players” like one of the world’s largest banks.

It seems pretty obvious that Engoron’s penalties and verdict, indeed the entire case, should be tossed.

We have no independent sources to prove or disprove White House aides’ claims that Hochul told Trump, “I control the judges” in some veiled hint that he needed to back off on upending her “congestion” tolls, but something odd is going on here. //

The court can make some excuse for its delays so far, citing the presidential election, transition and so on, but this stall is now starting to reek.

The Appellate Division needs to do its job and rule; on the merits, it should be a reversal.

Shut down the left-leaning lawfare, and make it plain that in this country, we fight political battles at the ballot box, not in the courts.