Politics

Lawfare Bingeing: New Jersey Announces an Investigation into Trump Liquor Licenses

Many of us have expressed alarm at the politicization of the criminal justice system in New York by figures such as Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. It now appears that New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin is angling to get into the lawfare frenzy.

The conviction of Trump on 34 felonies has either thrilled or repelled citizens. For many of us, it is a sign of the degradation of our legal system. Even the chief CNN legal analyst has acknowledged that Bragg contorted the law to bring the recent case against former President Donald Trump in an unprecedented prosecution.

Yet, the use of the legal system for political purposes is clearly popular in New York where people were literally dancing in the street outside of the courthouse after the recent verdict against Trump. Now Platkin’s office has announced that it is “reviewing” whether to pull the liquor licenses for Trump golf clubs since he is now convicted of felonies in New York. It appears that lawfare is nothing if not intoxicating for Democratic politicians.

According to an article in the Hill, the New Jersey Attorney General’s Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control is “reviewing the impact of President Trump’s conviction” on his liquor licenses for the Trump National Golf Club in Colts Neck, Lamington Farm Club, and Trump National Golf Club Philadelphia in Pine Hill.

The latest effort is based on a vague standard governing crimes of “moral turpitude” under New Jersey law:

No license of any class shall be issued to any person under the age of 18 years or to any person who has been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude. A beneficiary of a trust who is not otherwise disqualified to hold an interest in a license may qualify regardless of age so long as the trustee of the trust qualifies and the trustee shall hold the beneficiary’s interest in trust until the beneficiary is at least the age of majority.

A “crime of moral turpitude” is a familiar, though dated, standard in American law. I teach the standard in torts as one of the traditional “per se” categories for slander under the common law. It was generally used to denote conduct of immorality or serious offenses to norms of society. New Jersey defines it as including “any offense that carries the possibility of one year in jail and involves acts of baseness, vileness, or depravity in the private and social duties which a man owes to his fellowmen, or to society in general.

Even the New Jersey Alcoholic Beverage Control handbook notes that in “some instances, it may be unclear whether a conviction involves an element of moral turpitude.” Yet, Trump has a way to bringing clarity for his critics whenever they must chose between politics and principle.

For most of us, it is hard to see how falsifying business records would constitute “acts of baseness, vileness, or depravity in the private and social duties which a man owes to his fellowmen, or to society in general.” However, for Democrats, it seems that any act by Trump is by definition base, vile, and depraved.

The piling on of investigations and charges by Democratic officials has reinforced Trump’s long narrative of a weaponization of the legal system against him and his supporters. Polling shows that most citizens view some of these cases as political prosecutions and that they are having diminishing impact on voter preferences. Yet, they remain thrilling for Democratic voters who lionize prosecutors who come up with novel or unprecedented avenues to hammer Trump or hit his businesses. It does not seem to matter that removing the liquor licenses of these clubs can endanger thousands of jobs of citizens or chill other businesses in considering investments in New York or New Jersey.

In the end, the effort is hardly surprising. Lawfare is like binge drinking: the excess is the very measure of its success.

 

269 thoughts on “Lawfare Bingeing: New Jersey Announces an Investigation into Trump Liquor Licenses”

  1. It appears that we no longer have a functioning legal system. It’s been wrecked by these abuses. Essentially, the law has become whatever someone wants it to be, so in effect, there is no law. So courts are still operating under the false pretense that there’s some kind of law. I wonder when folks will just stop accepting the jurisdiction of these courts if justice cannot possibly result from them.

  2. How does that work if the license is issued to a corporation, LLC, etc.? Trump should stop doing business in these states that are engaged in this nefarious activity. Take the revenue to another venue. Let NJ pay UEC to those who lose their jobs as a result.

  4. Biden hit a new low in approval rating (37.4%) at 538 yesterday.

    Svelaz George the Spastic idiot-non-savant forgot to mention that one.

    1. That was yesterday,

      YOUR own post for 538 today puts biden at 40.0% vs, Trump at 40.9%

      The numbers will change every day.

      1. Shit your ignorant fvcking mouth George. I said approval rating.

        Spastic idiot

        1. You dont understand the difference between approval rating and election poll???

          2. Both are about approval ratings. You didn’t know that?

            It still shows they are both even on the latest polls.

  5. Everybody keep it down. Trump is on the phone with his probation officer

    3. Keep it down, Biden is taking a nap

      Its like shooting fish in a barrel

  6. “Sure, they have a text from Hunter the day after he bought the gun saying he was meeting his dealer. Sure there is another text a couple days later, where he says he is doing cocaine. But they dont have any pictures to PROVE it.”

    ——-Abbe Lowell, the brilliant defense attorney

  7. The funniest part is, this idiot thinks anyone gives a rats ass about sam alito.

    While its clear he has a homosexual crush on him.

  8. I just call balls and strikes as a neutral umpire in the game between Team God and the Evil Left, which must be defeated.

    —- Justice Samuel Alito

    1. He’s the Angel Hernandez of the Supreme Court !!!

      (Google Angel Hernandez if you don’t follow baseball)

      1. Did you finish licking the skid mark out of his american flag underwear?

      2. I will save them the trouble.

        Angel Hernadez is a member of the mlb hall of fame and is widely considered the best umpire in the history of baseball.

        1. Yea he is! Although CB Buckner says its only racism keeping him from the top spot.

    3. Alito may be a hopelessly biased Christofascist, but what do you expect me to do about it ?

      —- Justice John Roberts

        1. The Bible, a book written by sheep herders who did know where the sun went at sundown.

  9. See below for the fever dream of Svelaz George the Idiot-non-savant

    Below is the real story from 358 for those interested

    In what world that Trump is ahead nationally 41 to 40, does he lose the electoral count??? Answer…none

    Lets see George, i didnt see RFK on tour list of considerations.

    Funny, yeaterday George was poo-pooing the polls. Today he touts a polling “simulation”. U cant make this shit up.

    https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-general/2024/national/

    1. With RFK included, according to 538, the electoral count stands at 313 for Trump.

      Not close.

      1. It is close. Trump and Biden are 40.9% and 40.0% respectively. They are neck and neck according to your 538 link. .9% is not a lot and that’s with Kennedy. Should Kennedy drop out or lose voters it can change the outcome significantly.

        1. .9% is a galaxy, you idiot. If thats the R ahead, its represents a landslide, electorally. Do you want your own reality again, Svelaz?

          1. No it’s not. It’s well within the margin of error. Plus as 538 notes. Those numbers change daily. Sometimes Biden will be ahead others Trump will be ahead.

        2. Why would RFK drop out? He knows he hurts Biden and he has a vendetta of the DNC’s making. He is going nowhere. And if you think RFK’s followers are changing their minds, you ARE dreaming.

    2. I only said polling saying Trump will win is too early to be definitive. It’s also too early to say Biden will win. My position on polling hasn’t changed. But…..merely pointing out what 538 is saying according to their data now is still merely pointing it out. I’m not claiming it’s going to happen.

        1. In other words, ignoring that Trump leads in virtually every swing state and even virginia is becoming a tossup.

  10. “President Joe Biden is the favorite to beat Donald Trump in the 2024 election, according to a forecast model.

    Polling and forecasting website 538, originally known as FiveThirtyEight, said that Biden wins November’s race 53 times out of 100 when run through a prediction simulation, with Trump coming out on top 47 times out of a hundred.

    The simulation forecast is based on a number of factors, including adjusted polling averages, economic and political indicators, as well as demographic data to explore likely election outcomes.“

    Looks like it will be another close race. Or…not.

    Trump has been glitching a lot at his rallies, and Fox News has been editing interviews with Trump to avoid his sometimes incoherent mumblings. Cognitive decline is an issue with Trump as well.

    1. Steaming turd from george.

      Convincing anyone?

      Go place your bet, george. Vegas disagrees and the odds are really good right now.

      Or continue to be counted among the big mouth chicken shits.

    2. The guy who bases his predictive model on data from earthquakes adjusted to the political realm, a guy who only missed his prediction in 2000 when he picked Gore, predicts Biden as well.

    3. “including adjusted polling averages, “

      This is my favorite!

      Its called the “Gigi adjustment”

      What a douche

    4. “Cognitive decline is an issue with Trump as well”

      Bwahahahahaha even George the spastic idiot has given up on “Biden is sharp as a tack”.

      Its Back to buh buh buh trump

    1. I agree but I still have a queasy feeling that there are great numbers of pre-marked ballots for gavin newsome stored in various storage units in key states ready to drop around 3 am on Nov 6.

  12. The progs are only increasing his fan base at this point…go for it but note what just happened in Europe yesterday.

  13. URGENT MESSAGE FROM JONATHAN.

    As college campuses are closing down for the summer we are having trouble finding stories about children behaving badly. My writers are now scraping the bottom of the barrel for stories.

    If you are aware of any college campuses where students may still be acting out, please let us know. My writers have pre-written a number of alarming stories about student protests. It would be shame is they went to waste.

    Thank you,
    Jonathan

    1. You could always just save the pre-written stories for the fall.
      Then they would not go to waste, and your writers would be ahead of the game so to speak.

      1. Don’t forget about Summer School.
        There may yet be an opportunity to use those pre-written stories.
        Don’t give up hope Jonathan’s writers.

    3. Don’t worry. The Summer of Love part 2 will be happening all Summer long with the Hamas supporters doing all the burning down of America this year. The Progressive Monster was released, and they don’t know HOW to stop it, and it ISN”T hurting Trump……

    4. And if you can say “many of us” like a toy with a pull cord, your story goes right to the top of the slush pile.

  14. After the elections in Europe, Nate Silver’s latest polls showing Biden at his nadir, 37.7%, Biden’s display in France, Trump’s donation boom and the GA and FL cases just about trashed the Dems must be getting pretty nervous. This is why “George” and various “Anonymous” plants are working overtime on sites like this.

    Remember that the Dems had operatives at FB, Twitter and other social media sites in 2020, why would we think that they aren’t doing the same now?

    Does anyone know voters that like Biden? Do any of you ever run into anyone that thinks he is doing a good job? Well if Biden has such low approval in the public writ large then how is it possible that on a center right legal site that he would have such ardent defenders? I do know that there are some (mostly) men that are contrarian weirdos and they love to be opposite (hi Bizarro George), but my guess is these are mostly Dem operatives at play here and they should be treated as such, i.e. ignored.

    1. Operatives? What if we are just regular joes like you? Everything contrary to your views is merely a different view or perspective. More than a third of independents said a guilty verdict would make them less likely to support Trump’s candidacy. In a close race, that might matter. Trump needs independent voters by a large margin if he wants to win. He can’t expand his base any more than it is. His rallies have shown fewer attendance and interest except for his most rabid fans. He also has to content with women voters who are also peeling off.

      Trump’s conviction is not going to be a ‘death blow’ to his campaign, but it is doing serious damage and many of his supporters and analysts sympathetic to Trump are not wiling to admit it is a problem. Trump being a felon and criminal is going to turn off a lot of people he may need to win. But, as I say, polls this early to determine a probable winner are useless. However it seems polls about the present sentiment of independent voters has more validity. It seems many independents have already made up their minds about Trump and Biden. But the conviction may have changed a few. Overall it is not good news for Trump.

      1. “More than a third of independents said a guilty verdict would make them less likely to support Trump’s candidacy.”

        A goddam lie is not an opposing point of view, jack ass.

        11% of independents less likely to vote for trump

        15% of independents more likely to vote for Trump

        74% no difference.

        And please, not interested in your forbes or vox or guardian horse shit, so dont bother

        Also, its well known that dems tell pollsters they are independents.

        All of you woke extremists think you are mainstream.

        https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/politics/guilty-or-not-guilty-trump-verdict-wont-sway-most-voters-poll-shows

        1. “ Also, it’s well known that dems tell pollsters they are independents.”

          It’s also well known republicans also tell pollsters they are independent. Especially more moderate republicans.

          1. Lol one is because they consider themselves that. The other is being purposely deceitful.

      2. George is employing the Gigi tactic of just screeching everything the opposite of reality.

    2. HullBobby,
      Well said.
      Just as in 2016 and even 2020, I do not know of anyone who is “undecided.”
      I only know of two people who are not voting for Trump and their deciding factors are, 1) “I dont like what he says. I wish he would just shut up.” and 2) After a long conversation comparing and contrasting to Biden, “All I know is I hate the man [Trump]!”
      The first gets her news from Yahoo.
      The second, CNN. Although she has admitted she does NOT like Biden.
      I agree about ignoring the various anonymous and other obvious DNC operatives.

      1. Upstate, they are getting desperate aren’t they? Keep up the good work, there are too many “Anonymous” guys, too many operatives like George, too many contrarian weirdos that have an odd need to come here hourly to say how bad the site is and too many Gigis’ out there in the stratosphere. But with people like you and a good group of others the site remains enjoyable.

        1. HullBobby,
          That is the one upside with all the various anonymous and others. They give us insight into their mindset, their delusions, their desperation by the way they twist reality to fit their own or out right lie. Their arguments many a time are incredibly juvenile or make no logical sense.
          Other than that, just scroll past.

  15. You can bet your Buster Brown’s the attacks on President Trump will not stop. Hopefully President Trump will be elected to office and place an AG who believes in the rule of law and our constitution. As an American I don’t want “revenge” but I do want those who have broken the law, perverted our laws and deprived Donald Trump citizen of his constitutional rights to be considered criminals. If they are not dealt harshly for their actions not one of us here on JT’s blog will be safe from their attacks.

    1. Margot,

      “ As an American I don’t want “revenge” but I do want those who have broken the law, perverted our laws and deprived Donald Trump citizen of his constitutional rights to be considered criminals.”

      But you DO want revenge. Every Trump supporter wants it regardless of what the law says. That’s not holding up the values of…law and order.

      1. “But you DO want revenge. “

        Ignorant one, learn the difference between revenge and justice.

    2. I’ve always thought an appropriate punishment for trump’s crimes would have him being f#$ked by a horse on the town square in a public celebration.

    3. Margot,
      Do recall of James Carville’s call to MSM to slant coverage against Trump and for Biden.
      For the next few months we are going to see some real crazy coming out of MSM and our leftist friends here will repeat it as if it were facts.
      Just as they have been since 2016.

  16. Just look at the Governor Murphy and imagine this is the elected leader of that trash state. Let’s take a gander at some liberal governors: Prtizker? Morbidly obese, sickeningly rich and crazy liberal. Really? Murphy? Sickeningly rich, phony as all get out, fascist tendencies. Newsome? No comment needed since there are thousands of examples of his insanity and lack of depth. Hochul? Hochul? I mean what needs to be said?

  17. “For most of us, it is hard to see how falsifying business records would constitute “acts of baseness, vileness, or depravity in the private and social duties which a man owes to his fellowmen, or to society in general.”

    I’ll bet Melania could see right away that Trump did a little more than falsify business records. The standards existed before Trump came along, Turley’s problem is that Trump is being held to it. Turley does his Turley thing of shaping the issue to where it only involves falsifying records, without acknowledging Trump has also been found liable for sexual assault, openly cheated on his wives, committed fraud and had his fake university and charity shut down, and dines with white supremacists. If anyone meets the standard for “acts of baseness, vileness, or depravity” it would be Trump. Not to mention he is being investigated for cheating on his taxes, New Jersey has a monetary interest in not being cheated.

    Having said that, it’s an antiquated law with no hope of being applied fairly and uniformly and should be removed from the books. But as long as it exists, Trump is the perfect candidate for enforcement. It also gives him an excuse to stay away from the Boardwalk and all those nasty sharks.

    1. I’m old enough to remember the republicans going after Bill Clinton. The more they went after him, the more he looked like a victim. Keep persecuting Trump and you’ll persecute him right back into the Whitehouse.

      1. Is it persucution in cases of actual guilt? I think New Jersey is probably wrong to pursue Trump on a vague moral turpitude clause, they might instead do a quiet audit of their tax revenue from the casinos to ensure they aren’t being cheated like everyone else.

        There are serious charges against Trump yet to be resolved. Obstruction of justice seems easiest to prove and ought to matter to the public. If someone votes for Trump, solely because he’s been indicted multiple times, a convicted felon, and found liable in multiple cases, I tend to wonder about their values.

  18. What’s even more exasperating than watching the Democratic party feeding frenzy is the knowledge that, although there are no doubt plenty of Democrat crimes and misdemeanors to go after, the Republicans will do nothing.

  19. The lower Biden falls in the polls, the more the Democrats have to go after Trump. It’s the domino effect.

  20. Trump Derangement Syndrome
    TDS is a psychological condition induced by the requirement to make of Donald Trump a worse villain than even the worst imaginable villainies of the left. So that all the evil the left does, or is planning to do, can be justified by this constant insistence.

    Trump critics believe “no matter how badly they behave Trump is worse,” and “no matter what they do in the future, Trump would do worse.”

    Trump now literally has to be Hitler
    Why? Because the democrats have now taken their ideological corruption so far, that only such a comparison suffices to make their primary opponent a threat more dangerous than the one they themselves clearly pose,

    Trump Derangement Syndrome: Because no matter how horrible democrats are, Trump has to be worse.

    Remember the greatest thing the devil ever did, was convince the world he didnt exist, The greatest thing the left ever did, was convince the world thay are not who they really are.

    Keep in mind, right now in Europe Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has banned any political opposition and cancelled elections in his country in order to “preserve democracy.” Meanwhile, the western politicians clap like seals and beclown themselves in support of the ridiculous assertion.

    Remember this statement, “words progressives do not support are defined as violence; and the violence progressives do support, are defined as protests.”

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