OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Pollster Frank Luntz warned that if New York Attorney General Letitia James seizes former President Donald Trump’s assets, it could create victimhood and increase his chances of being elected in 2024.
“I want you to remember this moment and don’t forget it. If the New York Attorney General starts to take his homes away, starts to seize his assets, it’s all going to be on camera. Pundits are going to sit there and scream about this, this man cannot be elected. You’re going to create the greatest victimhood of 2024, and you’re going to elect Donald Trump,” Luntz told CNN’s John Berman.
“If they take his stuff, he’s going to say that this is proof that the federal government and the establishment and the swamp in Washington and all the politicians across the country and the attorneys general and all of this, that this is a conspiracy to deny him the presidency. He’s going to go up in the polls just like he went up every single time they indicted him,” Luntz added.
He continued: “The indictment, let’s not talk about whether it’s justified or not, but it will prove the things that he’s saying on the campaign trail, and he will go up, and it may just elect him president. Do not forget that. And I say this to the Attorney General right now: if you play politics on this, this is what the secretaries of state did in Colorado and what they did in, I believe, Maine. His numbers went up in both states.”
“I don’t understand. I’m almost speechless in how pathetic the opposition to Trump has been and how completely misguided and this is a perfect example of it…How is Donald Trump beating Joe Biden? He’s got 85 indictments that still exist, felonies. How is he beating Joe Biden with the economy getting better and things cleaning up? Okay. We got – you still have inflation. You still got immigration. Trump is leading. And in the seven swing states, Trump is up by the margin of error in five out of seven. Why is that happening?” Luntz asked.
“Because his critics are stupid and they’re running a horrible campaign. And for those people who do not want Joe – Donald Trump back, they should be thankful that the people who are orchestrating his loss are as pathetic and they don’t understand the American people,” he concluded.
WATCH:
Georgetown University law school professor and legal expert Jonathan Turley also recently tore into James.
During an interview on Fox News, Turley compared the treatment Trump is getting in New York to “mob justice.”
Turley was responding to the massive $454 million fine levied against him in his civil fraud case, noting that the way the ruling was written, Trump can’t even appeal the decision until he pays the money.
“This is obviously a situation where you don’t have any good options, including getting the bond itself. Remember, if you get the bond, you still lose a considerable amount of money on the cost of the bond. And this creates a sort of perverse incentive for judges like this one who comes up with this astronomical, in my view ridiculous, level of damages,” Turley told the “Fox & Friends” morning show hosts.
“Basically, his position is, ‘In order to get any other judge to look at what I’ve done to you, you’ve got to come up with basically a half a billion dollars, just to appeal,'” Turley continued. “It’s like a judge saying, ‘I’m going to take your house away, but you can appeal my decision; you just have to sell your house to do it.
“Many people look at this as a type of almost mob justice,” the law professor added. “As you know, the attorney general ran on bagging Trump. She’s now pledging to seize his property just because he can’t come up with this bond.
“At some point, the courts have got to step in and say, look, this is just simply enough. You know, you’re requiring this astronomical bond just for this guy to be able to get any other judge to look at this decision,” he said.
