How Letitia James Is Going To Re-Elect Trump
And: An Update On The Diocese Of Lafayette's Excommunication
Coming at y’all today with an important update. The New York state Attorney General is preparing to take Donald Trump’s properties away because he can’t pay the over $400 million in punitive damages he owes for losing a financial fraud case. Trump was convicted of massively inflating the value of his properties to get loans. Excerpt:
The New York attorney general’s office has filed judgments in Westchester County, the first indication that the state is preparing to try to seize Donald Trump’s golf course and private estate north of Manhattan, known as Seven Springs.
State lawyers entered the judgments with the clerk’s office in Westchester County on March 6, just one week after Judge Arthur Engoron made official his $464 million decision against Trump, his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and the Trump Organization.
The decision against Trump and the difficulty the former president is having securing a bond while he appeals the verdict strikes directly at Trump’s image as a billionaire as he attempts to raise more cash for both his legal bills and third run for the White House.
Entering a judgment would be the first step a creditor would take to attempt to recover property. Additional steps, such as putting liens on assets or moving to foreclose on properties, or taking other actions in court would follow, if the asset is going to be seized.
This is huge. Here’s a link to John Robb’s tweet, in which you can watch the serious-as-a-heart-attack response from (anti-Trump Republican) pollster Frank Luntz:
Luntz doesn’t hold back. He said that if the State of New York does this, they are likely to re-elect Donald Trump, because this will be a perfect example of Trump’s claim that the system is rigged against him.
Liberal Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus earlier expressed doubts about the way the system is treating Trump in this. Excerpt:
The essence of Trump’s argument on appeal is that the supposed harm he caused was minimal at best — all his lenders were repaid — and that the penalty levied against him was therefore wildly excessive. The conundrum is that the very size of the judgment, and the consequent size of the bond that Trump is required to post, might make him unable to appeal. Trump could pursue his case, but in the meantime, James would be entitled to seize and sell off the former president’s assets.
That can’t be right. It would mean that the more outrageous and disproportionate a damages award is, the harder it is to appeal.
At the time of the judgment — the figure was generated by the presiding judge in the trial — law professor Jonathan Turley said:
He just imposed a $355 million judgment with a law that has never been used in this way. That's the reason, and it's rather obvious. But you also have people like [Attorney General Letitia] James, who have never built a thing other than their political careers, who are now treating these buildings as if they're theirs. I mean, she said that she's eyeballing a couple of properties that she might want to seize, like this is a fire sale.
And the fact is that the judge showed absolutely no sense of equity in any of this. His decision is the decision of a single jurist. And this party wants to have a review, but in order to do that, he has to pony up what is about a half a billion dollars. And that has a gross unfairness to it when you combine the use of the law and the size of his judgment and then this requirement for a deposit. He just simply brushed those aside and his tone almost bordered on the mocking.
Am I surprised that Donald Trump was convicted of fraudulent business dealings? Of course not — though, in all honesty, I don’t know enough about the details of this particular case to say one way or another whether he was rightly convicted. It does seem incredibly disproportionate to impose a fine so massive, especially as it severely restricts Trump’s right to appeal. Moreover, this seems pretty clearly to be a case of a Democratic attorney general in a heavily Democratic jurisdiction going after Trump as a political prize.
It will be very, very easy for Trump to claim on the campaign trail that the System is taking away his property to punish him for being Donald Trump. Luntz is right: this will be an incredible boost to Trump’s campaign. And even if Trump should lose, Robb is also correct: this kind of thing undermines the legitimacy of American institutions, which are already under tremendous pressure.
Might be wrong about this, but I seem to recall that Richard Nixon conceded after his downfall that he had allowed those who hated him, and whom he hated, to loom so large in his mind that he ended up undermining and ruining himself. That is what is happening here, with these Trump haters. Hey, I understand hating Trump! I don’t like him, but I don’t hate him either. Yet if I were a liberal, I would probably foam at the mouth at the mention of his name. But that passion is blinding them in a big way.
Here’s an infinitesimally smaller legal case, but one that illustrates the political and emotional point. Jack Phillips is the Colorado cake baker who is constantly hauled in and out of court by lawsuits, and by actions by state officials, against him for refusing to bake specialized cakes that offend his conscience.
In 2018, one of the Christian baker’s antagonists went after him like this:
"I'm thinking a three-tiered white cake. Cheesecake frosting," the customer wrote in the June 4 email, according to Phillips' lawsuit filed in Denver's federal court on Tuesday. "And the topper should be a large figure of Satan, licking a 9" black Dildo. I would like the dildo to be an actual working model, that can be turned on before we unveil the cake."
Poor Phillips is now going to be hauled before the state Supreme Court again, in connection with this case, and his refusal to bake a cake meant to celebrate a gender transition. Guess who is now on the record backing the persecution via lawfare of this man?
It’s not just her:
In an amicus brief signed by 18 state attorneys general sent to the Colorado Supreme Court on Wednesday, including James, the AGs wrote, "Massachusetts, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington share sovereign and compelling interests in protecting our residents and visitors from discrimination."
The AGs of all those liberal jurisdictions want the state to force that humble man to bake a Satanic dildo cake.
Now, you can argue all the legal details you want to, but to ordinary people, there is a connection between Letitia James going after Donald Trump because she hates him, and Letitia James siding with the persecutors of Jack Phillips because he’s a member of a group she despises. And if Trump and the Republicans have a lick of political sense, they are going to make that connection in their public rhetoric, and keep making it all the way to election day.
None of us are going to be rich New York developers who are hit with a $400 million judgment that could end up with our high-rises seized by the state, because we are on the wrong side of the political and legal System there. But a hell of a lot of us could be Jack Phillips, who will be hounded to his grave by these people.
And this is why we will vote Trump.
An Update On Deacon Peyton
In today’s earlier letter, I mentioned the case of Scott Peyton, a deacon in the Catholic Church who served in the Diocese of Lafayette, La. — until late last year, when he and his family left the Church. Why? One of Peyton’s sons, an altar boy, was molested by a priest. That priest is now in prison for his crime. Recently the Bishop of Lafayette formally issued a letter of excommunication to Peyton. I found out about this through a local television report that went around social media.
In my earlier comment, I expressed puzzlement over Peyton’s anger. Why was he mad at the bishop for simply agreeing with him, on paper, that he (Peyton) was no longer a Catholic? Might it not be the case that canon law requires the bishop to write such a declaration when a member of the ordained clergy (Catholic deacons are ordained) leaves the Church? Peyton and his family did not cease to be Christians, we discover in the report, and are now worshiping at an Anglican parish. Nevertheless, they left Catholicism; the bishop, it seemed to me, simply formalized their decision.
I made it clear that I completely sympathize with the Peyton family for what they did, but that I didn’t get their anger at the bishop.
Well, Peyton’s son provided more context on Twitter — context that is hugely important in judging this case, but that the news reporter left out. Click here to see the tweet for yourself:
Gilbert Gauthe is the monster priest whose crimes are at the heart of Jason Berry’s fantastic 1990s book, Lead Us Not Into Temptation.
Here is a close-up of the email thread the younger Peyton provided:
This new context changes a lot. I entirely understand and share the Peyton family’s disgust with Bishop Deshotel — not so much for excommunicating Deacon Peyton, but for not defrocking those criminal abuser priests. Assuming that Alex Peyton’s information is accurate, why is it that the only formal canonical penalty imposed on clergy in relation to a sex abuse case in that diocese was against his father, who committed no crime, but left the Church in disgust over the molestation of his own altar boy son by a priest?!
It does shock the conscience. I had wondered if the bishop was required by canon law to formally excommunicate a clergy member (including a deacon) who affirmatively repudiated the Catholic faith. That might be so — any canon lawyers who are in this newsletter’s readership, please let us know. But it is horrific that the bishop could not even be moved to defrock — not excommunicate (which would be unjust if a convicted criminal nevertheless professes the Catholic faith), but simply to be reduced to the lay state — priests convicted of sex crimes. And, if Peyton fils is correct, priests who have left the Catholic faith. Even if this situation is canonically correct, pastorally, it is a catastophe.
I hope we can see more thorough, accurate reporting of this story than the quick-hit piece the area TV station did, which did not do justice to the facts of this appalling story. For that matter, it is possible, I suppose, that Bishop Deshotels has a stronger defense than has appeared so far. I would be eager to hear that too. I’ll keep you all updated as I get more information (email me at roddreher — at — substack — dot — com if you have more information or insight). You keep us updated too in the comments section.
Terror Attack In Moscow
As I’m finishing this, news is breaking on social media about a terrorist attack at a major Moscow concert hall. It’s very bad. Click here for video from inside the hall. As I write, hundreds of people are trapped inside the venue. The terrorists are shooting civilians.
"But a hell of a lot of us could be Jack Phillips, who will be hounded to his grave by these people.
"And this is why we will vote Trump."
For certain. If they can use the law in a way it's not been used before, and require an absurdly high bond few could ever pay - if they can do it to Trump they can surely do it to you, and don't you think they'll try if you, for example, decline to bake the Satan dildo cake?
That's the heart of Trump's appeal to his fans - he's taking the arrows that are ultimately meant for them. He's exposing how far "our democracy" will go to get him - and of course they'll subsequently use it to get the "deplorables."
Trump is giving us all a sneak peak of how it's going to work. Because, after perfecting these tactics against Trump, let's not think "our democracy" will retire them.
American culture, discourse, and politics have been gradually eroded until now there is very little left except tribalism all the way down. (We really do seem to be living through some version of a Reformation combined with a cold civil war that could get hot before the end of this decade.)
In every possible sphere of public life, from our cultural and educational classes who have tied themselves to the mast of holy dogma and who MUST make one more Social Justice movie, play, musical, exhibit, book, no matter how sterile or repetitive, even if it leads to hemorrhaging cash; from our journalists now who campaign against free speech; to our political class who are like mayflies that exist as slaves to a day, ie. the eternal present of the social media news cycle—NOTHING matters to any of these people except publicly performing obedience to their tribe and its dogma, while doing anything, no matter how deranged, to show how much they hate the other tribe and want to destroy it.
The Letitia Jameses of America are never in doubt and will never change course no matter how destructive their actions may become—the Dems have become Ahab with the Trump as their Orange Whale, and never forget they have zero allegiance to the principles of the Constitution or republican government (equality before the law, due process, free speech, freedom of association, good-faith democratic debate) because they believe these things are racist and illegitimate, and because these things stand in the way of their power dreams.
Soviet America is here and there will be no going back to the American Republic.