The anti-Trump lawfare trend is coming home, Save Jerseyans, and could soon impact some of President Trump’s iconic New Jersey properties.
On Tuesday, The Hill reported that the office of Attorney General Matt Platkin is investigating whether Trump’s bogus conviction in New York State should disqualify him from holding liquor licenses in the Garden State. If it does, his three New Jersey golf courses – Trump National Golf Club Colts Neck, Lamington Farm Club (Bedminster), and Trump National Golf Club Pine Hill – would lose their ability to serve patrons.
New Jersey law prohibits the issuance of liquor licenses “to any person under 18 years old or to any person who has been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude.” Whether Trump’s New York conviction qualifies is far from certain, but the Murphy Administration is unlikely to interpret the applicable statute in the former president’s favor. The New Jersey Alcoholic Beverage Control handbook concedes how in “some instances, it may be unclear whether a conviction involves an element of moral turpitude.”
The Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) regulates “the manufacture, distribution, sale, and transportation of all alcoholic beverage” sin New Jersey.
Any move on Trump’s properties will undoubtedly prove controversial even in “Blue” Jersey.
“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,'” explained well-known legal commentator and law professor Jonathan Turley on his blog, citing the state’s own definition of what qualifies as moral turpitude. “However, for Democrats, it seems that any act by Trump is by definition base, vile, and depraved.”
The New York conviction is widely expected to face a tough challenge on appeal in light of the many egregious ethical, procedural, and substantive defects of the trial which resulted in Trump’s conviction on 34 counts.
“In the end, the effort is hardly surprising. Lawfare is like binge drinking: the excess is the very measure of its success,” added Turley.
