Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday refused for hours to answer questions at a deposition by lawyers for New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is conducting a civil investigation of the Trump Organization‘s business practices.
Shortly after arriving at that court-ordered interview under oath at James’ offices in lower Manhattan, Trump announced in an emailed statement that he had invoked his Fifth Amendment right against making self-incriminating statements.
Trump answered just one question — his name — and then invoked the Fifth on every question he was asked, his lawyer Ronald Fischetti told NBC News.
Trump also read out loud a statement in which he called James’ probe “the greatest witch hunt in the history of our country,” and accused the Democratic attorney general of “openly campaigning on a policy of destroying me,” Fischetti said.
James was there for about half of the total four-hour session, according to Fischetti, who said Kevin Wallace, an attorney for her office, asked Trump about the valuations of various real estate assets, including golf clubs, his signing of documents in connection with mortgages and loans, and about the size of his apartment. Fischetti described the mood in the room as polite and not tense.
Trump’s refusal to answer questions was legal, but could harm his chances of prevailing against James in any civil litigation she files in connection with her probe.
James is focused on allegations that the Trump Organization improperly reported the stated valuations of some of its real estate assets for financial gain, in the form of better terms on loans and insurance, and tax benefits.
“I once asked, ‘If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?’ Now I know the answer to that question,” Trump said in the emailed statement after he arrived at the deposition, which claimed James is a renegade prosecutor with a vendetta against him and his company.
“When your family, your company, and all the people in your orbit have become the targets of an unfounded, politically motivated Witch Hunt supported by lawyers, prosecutors, and the Fake News Media, you have no choice,” Trump said.
“Accordingly, under the advice of my counsel and for all of the above reasons, I declined to answer the questions under the rights and privileges afforded to every citizen under the United States Constitution,” he said.
In 2016 Trump suggested that people who cite the Fifth Amendment when being questioned are guilty of something.
A spokesperson for James said in a statement late Wednesday afternoon, “While we will not comment on specific details, we can confirm that today, our office conducted a deposition of former president Donald Trump.”
“Attorney General Letitia James took part in the deposition during which Mr. Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination,” the spokesperson said.
“Attorney General James will pursue the facts and the law wherever they may lead. Our investigation continues.”
Trump’s deposition came two days after the FBI, in an unrelated criminal investigation, raided his home at the Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, and seized what his attorney has said were about a dozen boxes of documents.
That search was related to an ongoing investigation into whether laws were broken when boxes of White House records — which included some documents marked as classified — ended up at Mar-a-Lago instead of the National Archives.
A Manhattan Supreme Court judge in his February ruling ordering Trump and two of his adult children to submit to questioning by James’ team had noted they would “have the right to refuse to answer any questions that they claim might incriminate them.”
Judge Arthur Engoron also wrote that if the Trumps invoked the Fifth Amendment, their refusal to answer questions cannot be used against them in a criminal prosecution.
But Engoron went on to note that a jury in a civil case is allowed to draw “a negative inference” when a party to the case “invokes that right against self-incrimination.” In other words, James could argue to a jury that it should assume Trump has conceded her claims against him by refusing to answer her questions.
The Trumps had asked Engoron to block the subpoenas, or at least stay their enforcement until the conclusion of a parallel criminal probe of the Trump Organization by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/10/trump-says-he-refused-to-answer-ny-attorney-generals-questions-in-probe-of-his-business.html