In an op-ed at The Wall Street Journal, Jeb Bush and Joe Londsdale authored an op-ed railing against the absurd punitive judgment against Donald Trump in a Manhattan civil court and against a case in Delaware against Elon Mush.
“The U.S. is the business capital of the world in large part because of its robust constitutional system and impartial judiciary. But two unprecedented legal decisions against Donald Trump in New York and Elon Musk in Delaware call that into question. In both cases, judges have ordered massive punitive judgments on behalf of dubious or nonexistent “victims,” they wrote.
“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.”
“In Delaware, Chancellor Kathleen McCormick of the Court of Chancery ordered the unwinding of five years of Mr. Musk’s incentive-based compensation at Tesla, which had been approved by 80% of the company’s shareholders. The plaintiff, Richard Tornetta, held nine shares in 2018—worth about $200 then and $2,000 today, after the execution of the compensation plan that supposedly injured him.
“Mr. Musk’s compensation plan awarded him stock bonuses tied to earnings and stock-value benchmarks, which many critics thought he could never meet. When he did, he received $56 billion, enriching shareholders like Mr. Tornetta along the way. Judge McCormick has yet to say how she wants the pay package unwound, but Mr. Tornetta’s lawyers could petition her for a percentage of the $56 billion as a fee for having succeeded in their challenge. Mr. Musk’s performance at Tesla enriched all shareholders, but Judge McCormick’s ruling may primarily enrich Delaware trial lawyers.”
They called for appellate courts “to stop further damage to the reputations of their respective judiciaries.”
“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.”
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Being the cynic I am about anything political, I doubt Jeb et al would venture a public statement of any “help” to Elon and Trump. Corruption, jealousy, hate, self preservation is the engine driving that statement. IMO
The Bush family can easily become a target of frivolous lawsuits to seize their wealth.
Interesting, JB is signalling the RINOs or Nazis “maybe” concerned about the progression of tyranny that they have supported for decades. Supported may be a poor word for discussion’s sake. Should I have substituted “created” for supported? Or maybe there is concern that the group JB represents think maybe they are losing control to Communist Obama and Nazi Soros?
Is it possible JB and his allies are paving the way to avoid retribution/reckoning from the fly over crowd?
For what ever reason it’s nice to learn the Bush dynasty is squirming about something! It’s certainly not about what’s happened to Trump and Musk. The Bushes and his allies enjoyed that.
Put the crazies in power and get crazy results.