I guess that depends on your definition of "outside pressure," since you apparently include people on the editorial board of the New York Journal of Mathematics as outside pressure on the New York Journal of Mathematics.
Such "outside pressure" seems to exist also within economics. The following quote is from a review Ken Binmore wrote for the Journal of Economic Methodology (Vol. 18, No. 2, June 2011, 177–181): "[T]he overwhelming majority of our (very large) number of referees were unremittingly hostile to our being published—so hostile that the editor was apparently threatened by a group of his editorial board with being fired if JEBO published our paper"
I want to use the opportunity to express my puzzlement about your essay that seemingly accepts talking points made by some actors in the drama. You write (about I Rivin): "He quickly got two referee reports (rather than the usual one), which were favorable" The sole acceptance letter fom Rivin to Hill reads"Dear Ted, Here is the referee's report. You will note that the referee has a couple of questions - it is not necessary to address these for publication, but if you could add a couple of lines, that would be great! Igor" The referee of the one included report states that they are not a mathematical biologist and recommends to send the paper to an actual mathematical biologist.
