FIRST ON FOX: Former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy predicts a recent judgment worth almost half a billion dollars against former President Trump in New York will drive voters to Trump in "droves" and could be struck down unanimously by the Supreme Court for violating the 8th Amendment.
"I think this will drive independents to Trump in droves," Ramaswamy told Fox News Digital about the possibility that the state of New York will begin seizing Trump’s properties as early as Monday if he is unable to secure the $464 million bond needed to appeal the recent civil judgment against him.
"Especially independents who are concerned about their own economic plight, their own security and safety in this country, who aren't particularly partisan one way or another, but don't believe that the justice system should be used to financially punish certain people because of their political affiliation."
Ramaswamy continued, "I think that's going to be startling and eye-opening for a lot of independents across this country and it is really a shame that they're doing this to Trump, but I think it's going to have the effect of even giving him a more decisive electoral mandate this November."
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Reports circulated this week that New York officials are on the verge of seizing Trump properties if he doesn’t meet the bond deadline on Monday, something his legal team has said is a "practical impossibility", and Ramaswamy said while he questions the accuracy of those reports, it would be a "sad" and "unjust" development.
"I mean it's just jarring to think that this is a country where you just trace back the origin of this prosecution, you have a prosecutor who ran on the explicit promise of going after one man, regardless of the crime then actually effectively concocts a crime out of nowhere, torturing a statute that lawyers on the left and right agree was never intended for this kind of case," Ramaswamy said.
"Abusing a consumer protection law to instead charge a case where the counterparties weren't ordinary consumers, but sophisticated financial institutions, and moreover, sophisticated financial institutions that were not harmed that made money from those interactions to find a nearly half $1 billion judgment against an individual, and then use that as a lever in the middle of an election to effectively exercise a form of political and financial leverage over that individual, is shocking that this has happened in the United States of America."
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"I think that the old Soviet saying was, you find me the man and I'll show you the crime," Ramaswamy said. "Well, that's come to life now in the pursuit of Donald Trump."
In addition to being unjust on its face, Ramaswamy told Fox News Digital that be believes the judgment violates the 8th Amendment and if taken to the Supreme Court on appeal would likely result in a 9-0 decision in Trump’s favor similar to the effort to remove him from Colorado presidential ballot.
"I think this is exactly the kind of case that the first half of the eighth amendment was designed to protect against and I believe if taken to the Supreme Court. We could see the equivalent of another nine zero rebuke of this unjust maneuver against Trump."
"I say this because Ruth Bader Ginsburg herself, not some sort of conservative justice, certainly it's not the label that most would use to describe Justice Ginsburg but she had a clear eyed view of the Eighth Amendment as well and I think if she were on the court today she'd say the same thing," Ramaswamy explained.
"This is an excessive fine, especially against the prosecutorial context of it's not just an excessive fine issued by a jury in an otherwise impartial prosecution, it's the product of a remarkably precise witch hunt against one man that then is topped off by what is obviously an excessive fine in a case where there was literally no victim for the alleged crime and I think that that is going to be, if that's an avenue that's pursued on appeal, I think it's going to be a very promising one for the Supreme Court to affirm."
The 8th Amendment to the United States Constitution states, "excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted."
Ramaswamy posted on X on Thursday that he believes a disbarment could possibly be in store for New York Attorney General Letitia James as a result of her legal pursuit of the former president.
"Not just because of this one case, because of a pattern of behavior demonstrating that her own political beliefs are affecting the legal judgments that she makes as a prosecutor that has impact on the lives of everyday citizens and so I think that type of continued reckless disregard for the law, I do think, is grounds for disbarment," Ramaswamy said, while acknowledging it’s "very difficult" to "prosecute a prosecutor for a crime."
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"But this had an impact on a presidential candidate's latitude and ability to run an election," Ramaswamy said. "If there is irreparable damage done both to Trump and to the country, there has to be some level of accountability. There can't just be no accountability for the people who perpetrated this and at the very least, one level of accountability I think could be disbarment."
James has been widely criticized over past statements seemingly boasting about her aspirations while campaigning for her position to prosecute Trump and said in an interview last month that she thinks about it every time she walks by his properties.
"If he does not have funds to pay off the judgment, then we will seek, you know, judgment enforcement mechanisms in court, and we will ask the judge to seize his assets," James told ABC News. "We are prepared to make sure that the judgment is paid to New Yorkers," James said of her commitment to ensuring Trump pays the fine. "And yes, I look at 40 Wall Street each and every day (the location of The Trump Building)."
Additionally, James has publicly taunted Trump over the interest he owes from the ruling.
"If you look at a lot of the things that she was saying before she ran for office, in some sense she actually meant it and she has delivered on what was political rhetoric but bringing that now into the practice of law and prosecution itself," Ramaswamy said.
"And so I think I'm saddened by it and I think it's going to send a chill down the spine of every person who's not in politics, but who may share certain political views that are contrary to the prosecutor, for them to believe that they're now at risk to and I don't think that Americans, including business people, should have to worry about their political views affecting the way that they would be charged. And yet, this case suggests that that's exactly what's happened here."
Ramaswamy told Fox News Digital that theories that used to be dismissed as "conspiracies" just a few years ago are now "blunt realities" and reiterated his belief that a significant amount of American voters will take issue with the prosecution against Trump.
"The reality is I think it's going to sadly, that Donald Trump has to go through this, it's sad, but it will have the effect of opening the eyes of many other Americans who otherwise would have thought, hey, that's just something that would never happen to me to now realize that if this is the theory they're going to use to extort nearly half $1 billion from one man, if they could do it to Trump they could do it to anybody," Ramaswamy said.
"I think the everyday Americans and business people and entrepreneurs opening their eyes to that is going to have a seismic impact on the election this year. It's a shame that Donald Trump has to go through this. It's really sad. It's unjust."
Ramaswamy told Fox News Digital that the New York ruling ultimately hurts America’s standing on the world stage.
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"People are opening their eyes to the reality to say that we don't want to become some banana republic," Ramaswamy said. "We can't point to other countries and ride a high horse of our civic superiority as a constitutional republic. If we're behaving worse than many of the other countries that we supposedly set an example for and I think if there's a silver lining in all of this, I think this could then become a turning point to revive the ideals of our country, to revive the ideals of the American Revolution and that's at least something positive that comes out of these disastrous events then I'm hopeful that can at least be a revival on the other side of it."
"That will make us stronger but it is saddening that people like Trump have to go through this. If there's good that comes of it for the country, for waking up people to the realities of this weaponization and to say hell no to it at the ballot box this November then I think that at least there could be some good that comes out on the other side."
Fox News Digital reached out to the office of Attorney General James for comment but did not receive a response.
A source familiar with the situation told Fox News Digital this week that Trump's legal team plans "to exhaust all options" to secure the bond needed for appeal before Monday's deadline.
"The Trump team is continuing to look at every conceivable option," the source said, adding that they are "hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst."
