The massive fines and interest growing against former President Donald Trump in his civil case in New York point to an Eighth Amendment violation because of the multimillion-dollar amounts involved, former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker said on Newsmax Sunday.
"There are supposed to be no excessive fines and no cruel and unusual punishment," Whitaker said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America," adding that New York Attorney General Letitia James brought the case against Trump as a campaign promise and a "vindictive effort" to push Trump and his companies out of the state.
"Our Founding Fathers knew this was a weapon used by the state to harm citizens that are out of favor," Whitaker said. "[And] 250 years later, almost here we are with the same threat because the Founding Fathers understood one thing, and that was human nature."
He added James is "celebrating" the accrual of the fine's interest in the case every day on X, formerly Twitter, with the amount now reaching almost $450 million, but he said he thinks the Supreme Court will knock down that amount, as "there was not a single victim in that case."
Meanwhile, Whitaker said it is hard to predict what will happen with special counsel Jack Smith urging federal Judge Aileen Cannon to reject Trump's efforts to dismiss the classified documents case against him in Florida.
"A fairly interesting legal question is not only this Presidential Records Act but also whether or not the National Archives could even refer a criminal case to the Department of Justice under the statutory scheme," Whitaker said.
The Supreme Court is also scheduled to hear arguments on April 25 concerning Trump's presidential immunity in connection with the election interference case Smith has presented, and Whitaker said he believes the justices will rule in Trump's favor.
"Every president needs the ability to do their job without worrying about what future administrations will consider their decisions," said Whitaker. "Presidential immunity is certainly a doctrine. The question is, Is it unlimited, or are there out of bounds to it … presidents need unlimited immunity and I think that we'll get close to that from the Supreme Court case.
"They will say that anything the president does [is] an official act and certainly is covered by presidential immunity."
The determination, he added, will depend on acts Trump performed within the scope of his service as president.
Whitaker also said that the timing of all the cases against Trump is to get a criminal conviction against him before the November general election.
"Jack Smith especially has been pushing for that," he said. "He has been frustrated by the constitutional rights of the former president, which you know is certainly something that Donald Trump is entitled to."
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