Rethinking the Trump Lawsuit Through a Business Lens

Over the past months, the public has followed with bated breath the legal fight between New York Attorney General Letitia James and former US President Donald Trump. The standard narrative paints the battle as a fight for justice. Still, my experience has led me to see it differently – especially in light of the consequences it has had for New York business more broadly, not to mention the reactions of the involved bankers who have wondered, somewhat suspiciously, what victims there are and what the harm could possibly be.

As someone who runs a business, I feel my fellow business leaders become increasingly on edge. The hawkish approach the attorney general has taken against Trump sends a message with broader implications. It makes many of us fear that legal frameworks and precedents could become political weapons, damaging the innovation that fuels New York. What if laws or regulations could be used to target businesses because their leaders, or their companies, engaged in politics in a way someone in government doesn’t like or because their leader had done something decades before?

In addition, the speculations about Trump's lies about his financial affairs that allowed him to obtain better loan terms present only one party’s perspective. Bankers who were actually making and approving those loans have come out and said they did not feel duped and had not lost money. Unpacking the details of the legal claims, I sometimes wonder if the suit is less about the law and more about scoring political points.

Making matters worse is the huge sums of money demanded in this lawsuit, which seem remarkably out of scale and highly punitive. The lack of correlation between these sums and any real ‘Loss Amount from Victims’ has me wondering how this fine amount was calculated. When punitive measures are imposed without a clear connection to actual loss, it further compounds the impression of legal combat as vengeance instead of justice.

We must consider the integrity of our legal system itself.

In conclusion, this legal battle is a critical test of the legitimacy of our legal and political institutions. We need to find a way forward that advances justice – as a means of union rather than division – and upholds the rule of law above petty politics.