Reason magazine’s Volokh Conspiracy has posted a ferocious denunciation of the Trump/James/Engoron atrocity: President Trump’s Kafkaesque Civil Trial in New York State, by Steven Calabresi, February 18, 2024. The absolutely accurate subheadline is:

A Stalinist nightmare in New York State

Calabresi, right, a Professor of Law at Northwestern University and a sometime enemy of President Trump, does not mince words:

Ms. James and Judge Engeron have essentially turned a vaguely worded New York State law into a modern day Bill of Attainder targeted at Donald Trump both for political gain....

He goes on:

…they have violated Trump’s First Amendment right to freedom of speech and of the press; his Fifth Amendment right not to be deprived of liberty or property without due process of law; his Fifth Amendment right not to have property taken away from him except for a public use with just compensation being paid; his Eighth Amendment right not to be made to pay an excessive fine; his Article IV, Section 2 right as a citizen of Florida to do make and enforce contracts in New York on the same terms as are other New Yorkers; and his Fourteenth Amendment right to be free to pursue an occupation without unnecessary and burdensome regulation.

Quite a mouthful!

But what really caught my eye was his denunciation of

…the completely inappropriate appointment of Judge Jones as an ”independent monitor” who can micromanage the Trump business, which she is not competent to do … Judge Jones can hire an independent director of compliance, and she has the authority to compel Trump to sell some or even all of his businesses down the road. 

[VDARE.COM emphasis]

As noted in ’This is truly a joke’: Trump lawyer blasts independent monitor’s report ahead of fraud trial ruling [by Peter Charalambous, ABC News, January 29, 2024], retired U.S. District Judge Barbara S. Jones has already billed $2.4 million. Having secured a long-term appointment with wider powers how much she will be able to siphon off (with Engoron approving her bills) is not something any decent person would want to contemplate.

More important, what Calabrese has identified is a smoking gun. James and Engoron have quietly established the mechanism through which to implement the possibility I discussed in Does James/Engoron Gang Plan To Loot Trump’s Companies The Way Leftist Hero Judge Bazelon Plundered Japanese-Americans?

Do these people have the demonstrated integrity to resist this massive temptation?

Who is going to stop them? The ultrapoliticized N.Y. Judiciary?