Defending innocence: Trump's legal standoff with Letitia James

What’s happened in New York against former President Donald Trump is a blatant violation of the Eighth Amendment, and Mark Levin is going to prove it.

The Eighth Amendment reads: “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”

In a case from 2019 between Tyson Timbs and the state of Indiana, the standard was set for the United States, as well as the state court, on what it can and cannot do regarding the Eighth Amendment.

Timbs had pleaded guilty in Indiana State Court to dealing in a controlled substance and conspiracy to commit theft.

The response was completely disproportionate to his crimes.

At the time of his arrest, the police seized a Land Rover SUV Timbs had purchased for $42,000 with money he received from an insurance policy when his father died. The Indiana trial court denied the state’s request to turn over his $42,000 car, determining that it would be grossly disproportionate to the gravity of Timb’s offense, and therefore unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment’s excessive fines clause.

“It was a nine to zero decision, not a single justice agreed with the state prosecutors and the state government, not one. The majority opinion had seven bipartisan justices. There were two concurring opinions, but they all agreed that it violated the Eighth Amendment,” Levin explains.

The Supreme Court ruled that these fines undermine other liberties and can be “used to retaliate against or chill the speech of political enemies.”

“In other words, that case that was brought against Donald Trump should never have been brought. There shouldn’t even have been a sentencing hearing, there shouldn’t have been fines, there shouldn’t have been anything,” Levin remarks.

“This case against Donald Trump is a greater, more grave violation than anything we’ve ever seen under the excessive fines part of the Eighth Amendment, and much worse than the Timbs' case,” he adds.

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