Jeb Bush comes to Trump’s defense after $355M fraud judgment: ‘Damage could cascade’

Former Republican Florida Gov. Jeb Bush came to the defense of former President Trump in a Wall Street Journal op-ed slamming the recent New York civil fraud court case that ordered the 45th president to pay a $354.8 million fine plus interest. 

“Every American has a right to be critical of Mr. Trump’s politics—one of us ran against him in 2016,” reads Bush’s op-ed, titled, “Elon Musk and Donald Trump Cases Imperil the Rule of Law.” 

“…But equality before the law is precious, and these rulings represent a crisis not only for the soundness of our courts, but for the business environment that has allowed the U.S. to prosper,” the opinion piece continued. “If these rulings stand, the damage could cascade through the economy, creating fear of arbitrary enforcement against entrepreneurs who seek public office or raise their voices as citizens in a way that politicians dislike.”

The column, which was co-authored by Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, railed against the recent monthslong civil fraud trial against Trump, which resulted in a nearly $355 million fine and bars Trump from operating his business in New York for three years. The opinion piece also spoke out against how a Delaware judge recently rescinded tech billionaire Elon Musk’s $56 billion compensation from Tesla. 

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Former President Trump sits in New York State Supreme Court during the civil fraud trial against the Trump Organization in New York City on Jan. 11, 2024. (Getty Images )

Bush ran against Trump in the 2016 presidential election, when the two exchanged repeated barbs, including personal jabs such as Trump claiming Bush is an “embarrassment to his family.” In 2018, Bush said Trump is “Republican in basically name only” and took another apparent stab at the then-president, saying after he bowed out of the primary that he returned home where his children “actually love me.” 

Following Jan. 6, 2021, when supporters of Trump breached the U.S. Capitol, the former Florida governor said Trump “provoked the disgusting events at the Capitol today.”

Republican presidential candidates Jeb Bush, left, and Donald Trump talk following the Republican presidential debate at St. Anselm College Feb. 6, 2016 in Manchester, New Hampshire. (Getty Images )

“He has gone from creating chaos to inciting insurrection,” Bush said in a post at the time. “Mr. President, accept your defeat, go home to Florida and let our elected officials do their jobs and rebuild confidence in our democracy.”

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The op-ed marks a defense of Bush’s former 2016 rival, albeit not for Trump’s political stances. Instead, Lonsdale and Bush are calling for a “dispassionate” legal system that will not throttle businesses and lead to a weakened economy. 

“​​New York and Delaware have played an outsize role in business in the U.S.” the pair wrote. “Many major companies are incorporated in Delaware owing to the state’s body of corporate legal precedents; and a significant number of banks operate in New York, the world financial capital. The appellate courts in those states now have a chance to review these dangerous judicial rulings and try to stop further damage to the reputations of their respective judiciaries.”

Jeb Bush delivers the Edwin L. Godkin Lecture at Harvard University, co-moderated by Roland Fryer and Paul Peterson on Sept. 29, 2016 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Getty Images )

“If they don’t, blue-state politicians may have the satisfaction of ‘sticking it’ to Messrs. Trump and Musk, but the loss to those states will be significant,” they continued. “The damage to the legal fabric of the country will be even worse. A dispassionate justice system is at the heart of American exceptionalism, and the country will be poorer if we lose it.”

Justice Arthur Engoron presides over the civil fraud trial of the Trump Organization at the New York State Supreme Court in New York City on Nov. 13, 2023. (ERIN SCHAFF/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Trump has since appealed the ruling and repeatedly argued that the presiding judge, Arthur Engoron, and New York Attorney General Letitia James were politically motivated in the case. 

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“A crooked New York judge working with the very corrupt attorney general of New York State, who ran on the basis of ‘I will get trump’ before knowing me — before even knowing anything about me — just ruled that I have to pay a fine of $355 million based on absolutely nothing,” Trump told Fox News Digital after the fine was announced. “No victims. No damages. Great financial statements, with full disclaimer clauses, only success.” 

New York Attorney General Letitia James speaks during a news conference, Sept. 21, 2022, in New York. (AP Photo/Brittainy Newman, File)

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The op-ed noted that when James was on the campaign trail for the attorney general position, she ran on a campaign “promise to target the man she called ‘an illegitimate president.’”

“The unusual New York law Ms. James used to investigate and sue Mr. Trump didn’t require her to prove that he had intended to defraud anyone, or even that anyone lost money. The Associated Press found that of the 12 cases brought under that law since its adoption in 1956 in which significant penalties were imposed, the case against Mr. Trump was the only instance without an alleged victim or financial loss,” the pair wrote. 

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Trump attorneys had asked Engoron to delay enforcement of the payment by 30 days to allow time for an “orderly post-judgement process,” which was denied Thursday afternoon.