Former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker told Newsmax on Monday that former President Donald Trump's "big victory" in getting his bond in the New York civil fraud trial cut to $175 million was spurred by a feeling of insecurity in the state's courts.
"I think the thing that was happening in this case is you're reading these stories about Sam Bankman-Fried and his bond and you're reading about Bernie Madoff and his bond, and the courts in New York were getting really, really nervous that they were becoming a joke and no one would want to do business," Whitaker said on Newsmax's "Newsline."
"Remember, the most important thing about, not only the New York legal system, a lot of people do business in New York, but the American legal system, is that it's fair, unbiased and you can count on the results. It's consistent.
"So, you're seeing this weaponized against one person when it could be done against anybody else and, obviously, the New York courts are very sensitive, especially at the appeals level, to what Judge [Arthur] Engoron did here when there's — to the point others made — no victim, no basis for this judgment in the first place, and a number that was untethered to any relation to any other number."
A New York appeals court on Monday agreed to pause collection of Trump's more than $454 million civil fraud judgment if he posts $175 million within 10 days.
If the presumptive GOP presidential nominee puts up the reduced figure, it will stop the clock on collection and protect his assets from seizure by the state while he appeals. The appeals court also struck down Engoron's prohibition on Trump and sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. from holding corporate leadership positions for several years.
Whitaker also commented on a development in Trump's hush money case, in which prosecutors recently released documents to Trump's legal team, resulting in the postponement of the original trial date.
"As a former U.S. attorney as well, I know a lot of these things very well, and what I will tell you is that you can't drop tens of thousands of pages of documents on a defendant on the eve of trial and not expect them to have time to prepare," Whitaker said. "No matter what Alvin Bragg suggests the contents of these documents are, a defendant certainly has the right to review and consider these documents and, if necessary, make them part of their defense.
"But, what's more important is, you have an absolute duty as a prosecutor to turn over, not only exculpatory information but, obviously, derogatory information about your own witnesses, for example, Michael Cohen. And so that's where this delay has come about.
"I think the less time they give him [Trump] to prepare for this trial with these tens of thousands of pages of documents delivered on the eve of the original trial date, I think the more unfair this appears, and the more it looks like a railroad job.
"This case is so weak. It is based on a federal election campaign theory that both the Southern District of New York and the Federal Election Commission rejected, and so I just think this case, from all the cases that he faces right now, it is by far the weakest."
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Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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