Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy has called for Attorney General Letitia James to be disbarred over her civil fraud case against Donald Trump and the $454 million fine he is ordered to pay. The former Republican presidential candidate argued that the fine imposed on Trump violates the 8th Amendment and represents a “threat to every American.”
“The Letitia James crusade against Donald Trump is disgusting and is a threat to every American. When you have prosecutors who are elected to office on a promise of going after one particular individual as she campaigned on, then go on to keep a campaign promise using the legal system to do it, it’s unjust,” Ramaswamy said in a video statement.
The statement was released after news broke that James has taken initial steps to seize former President Trump’s 140-acre Trump National Golf Club Westchester and Seven Springs estate, both of which are located in the New York suburb of Westchester. James has long vowed to seize Trump’s properties if he is unable to pay the fine by Monday, something Trump’s attorneys have referred to as “a practical impossibility,”
Ramaswamy went on to point out that the alleged “crime” had no victims, as financial providers agreed to provide Trump with loans on his properties, which were then paid back in full, plus interest.
“And yet Letitia James is using a consumer protection statute to literally make up numbers and say, ‘Hey, you have hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties that you owe. You have bond to post by a particular date of an unreasonable magnitude that even no billionaire is going to regularly able to meet and to say, if you don’t do it, I’m going to start seizing your property,’” Ramaswamy continued. “It’s disgusting. It is a threat to not only private property, but threat to the justice system and to the rights of every American.”
The former Republican contender — who is rumored to be in the running for a potential cabinet position if Trump wins re-election — went on to call for James to be disbarred due to 8th Amendment violations.
“The 8th Amendment prevents the imposition of excessive bail or excessive fines. And if there’s ever an example that meets that to a T, it is the bond that’s been demanded of Donald Trump in this disgusting New York Letitia James-led prosecution,” he said. “This is an opportunity for the Supreme Court to step in and say, no, we’re not going to stand for this kind of lawfare, whether it’s against Donald Trump or Democrat, it’s wrong. We don’t want to empower prosecutors to be able to use bond and bail or bonds as a way of effectively achieving a goal that they couldn’t achieve through the front door, which is bankrupting an opponent, even stopping them from being able to appeal those decisions.”
Ramaswamy is far from the only one to call for action to be taken under the 8th Amendment. Former Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker has predicted that the Supreme Court will step in to either reduce the fine or toss the case entirely under 8th Amendment grounds.
“But, you know, there are supposed to be no excessive fines and, you know, no cruel and unusual punishment. It’s a constitutional right. It’s our founding fathers knew this was a weapon used by the state to harm citizens that were out of favor,” Whitaker told Newsmax. “Well, you know, 250 years later almost, here we are with this same threat because they, you know, the founding fathers understood one thing and that was human nature.”
Trump has until Monday to pay the entire $454 million fine before James moves to start seizing his assets.
