New York Gov. Kathy Hochul knows she has spooked her state’s business community. That’s why she went on a talk show last week to calm their very legitimate fears that they would be next. If former President Donald Trump can be prosecuted and fined hundreds of millions of dollars for a common business practice, who is safe?
Hochul said New Yorkers are generally “honest people, and they’re not trying to hide their assets and they’re following the rules… This judge determined that Donald Trump did not follow the rules.” Hence the $355 million fine levied by the court.
But the truth is Trump engaged in a common business practice for developers. As “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary noted in a Fox News interview, “Forget about Trump, every single real estate developer everywhere on Earth does this. They always talk about their asset being worth a lot, and the bank says no. That’s just the way it is.”
The broader effect of such politicized prosecutions is clear — Americans are increasingly convinced we live in a nation with a two-tiered justice system.
“The trend has underlined the prosecutorial temptation to crusading self-righteousness,” The Washington Post’s Jason Willick pointed out recently. “The people charged with enforcing federal law seem to thrill at finding new ways to prosecute politically unsympathetic people who have behaved badly, even when their behavior wasn’t clearly illegal.”
That includes Americans like Daniel Penny, the young man prosecuted for murder for defending a subway car full of passengers from a mentally ill homeless
