By Scott Kaspar, Publisher
Published Originally in Newsmax
While Donald Trump Challenges Bogus $18M Valuation of Mar-a-Lago in New York State Court, Establishment Republicans Remain Silent
Last Tuesday, New York judge Arthur Engoron found 45th president and presidential candidate Donald Trump, his sons Eric and Don Jr., and their business, the Trump Organization, liable for fraud.
The crime?
Inflating the value of their assets to secure bank loans — loans that they repaid, on time and with interest.
And while none of the Trump Organization’s banks have been anything but pleased, Judge Engoron revoked the Trump Organization’s business certificates and has ordered the dissolution of its New York businesses, including the iconic Trump Tower on New York’s 5th Avenue in Manhattan.
As President Trump stated on Truth Social, the alleged fraud stems from financial statements submitted to banks with loan applications that provided valuations of Trump Organization assets.
Among the valuations that Judge Engoron has scoffed is that of President Trump’s Palm Beach, Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago.
Relying on property tax assessments, the judge found that Mar-a-Lago is worth only $18 million — far less than the valuations ranging from $427 million to $612 million included in President Trump’s financial statements.
Judge Engoron’s $18 million valuation of Mar-a-Lago demonstrates the intellectual dishonesty of his ruling.
Mar-a-Lago is a massive 20-acre estate and the only one on Ocean Boulevard that extends from the Atlantic Ocean to the intercostal.
Hence the name, which translates to: “Sea to Lake.”
We need only look at the recent land acquisition by Citadel founder and billionaire Ken Griffin to recognize that President Trump’s proposed valuation of Mar-a-Lago is spot on.
In an attempt to create his own version of Mar-a-Lago, Griffin has spent the past several years acquiring 8 adjoining lots on Palm Beach Island totaling about 25 acres at a cost of $450 million — and that’s just for the land.
It’s Griffin’s intention to build a sprawling mansion for himself and a separate home for his mother on the property.
Moreover, recent sales of lots located nearby Mar-a-Lago far exceeded $18 million for what amounts to less than two-and-one-half percent of the acreage.
And while President Trump and his supporters are outraged by the activist judge’s ruling, Establishment Republicans and their preferred presidential candidate, Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., remain silent.
On the same night that Judge Engoron’s ruling came down, the RNC held its second Republican presidential debate.
Was there any outrage expressed by any of the candidates or any of the RNC officers?
No. Not one word was even mentioned.
Sadly, this comes as no surprise, because the first RNC presidential debate took place the evening of the same day when President Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuiliani had been booked in Atlanta, Georgia for the crime of representing his client.
Not one word of outrage was expressed by any of the presidential candidates.
In fact, Mayor Giuliani’s name never came up.
Judge Engoron’s ruling should be setting off alarms, and Gov. DeSantis and the other presidential candidates should stand in unity with President Trump, calling out this injustice.
After all, Gov. DeSantis said he will start slitting throats of permanent Washington should he win the presidency.
The weaponization of our justice system is the single greatest existential threat to the fate of the American experiment.
We cannot be a system of law and order only when it’s in the political best interests of the party in power. Those are the tactics of communist China and Russia that DeSantis and the other Republican presidential candidates claim to oppose.
This must be our line in the sand.
It should not be partisan.
Democrats also should stand against the weaponization of the American system of justice, because if the injustice of Judge Engoron’s ruling against President Trump is tolerated now, those tactics can be equally applied against Democrats when the Republican Party next retakes the White House, if not in 2024.
The rules of the game will have forever changed.
That game must be won by those of us outside of the D.C. beltway. Fast.
Scott Kaspar is a lawyer licensed in Illinois, Iowa, Colorado, and California, and before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. He regularly appears on television and radio, providing legal analysis. He also is the Publisher of Illinois Review, the largest conservative news source in Illinois.
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