Trump Invokes 5th Amendment, Refuses To Depose Before AG In NY

NEW YORK, Aug 11: Former US President Donald Trump kept his date with New York Attorney General in Manhattan but declined to answer questions from the latter’s office, a calculated and yet surprising gamble in a high-stakes legal interview that will likely determine the course of a civil investigation into his company’s business practices of whether he has misused tax breaks.

Shortly after questioning began on Wednesday morning, Trump’s office released a statement saying he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, explaining that he “declined to answer the questions under the rights and privileges afforded to every citizen under the US Constitution”.

Two informed sources confirmed that he was refusing to answer questions, citing the Fifth Amendment, The New York Times reported.

Since March 2019, Attorney General Letitia James’s office has investigated whether rump and his company improperly inflated the value of his hotels, golf clubs and other assets.

Trump has long dismissed the inquiry from James as a partisan “witch hunt”.

In his statement on Wednesday, he cast it as part of a grander conspiracy against him, linking it to the FBI search at Mar-a-Lago, his home and private club in Palm Beach, Florida, on Monday.

“I once asked, If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?'” he said in the statement. “Now I know the answer to that question.”

Trump said that he was being targeted by lawyers, prosecutors and the news media, and that left him with “no choice”.

But there were other reasons Trump may have decided not to answer questions. While James’s inquiry is civil, and she cannot file criminal charges against the former President, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office has been conducting a parallel criminal investigation into whether Trump fraudulently inflated valuations of his properties.

Any misstep from the former President in his deposition could have breathed new life into that inquiry, The New York Times said.

Trump priorly was not expected to invoke his constitutional right against self-incrimination. He has long considered himself his best spokesman, and those who had questioned him in the past, as well as some of his own advisers, believed he was unlikely to stay quiet. His decision could have a significant impact on any trial if James’s investigation leads to a lawsuit. Jurors in civil matters can draw a negative inference when a defendant invokes his or her Fifth Amendment privilege, unlike in criminal cases, where exercising the right against self-incrimination cannot be held against the defendant.

Staying silent could also hurt Trump politically at a time when he is hinting that he will join the 2024 presidential race; it could raise questions about what he might be trying to hide. In the past, Trump has ridiculed witnesses for invoking their Fifth Amendment rights, once remarking at a rally that, “you see the mob takes the Fifth”, and, “if you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?”

The District Attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, had developed concerns about proving a case against Trump, but he has said that he is monitoring James’s investigation and planned to scrutinize Trump’s responses on Wednesday. The former President’s decision not to answer those questions may forestall new avenues in that investigation.

Trump is also contending with a litany of other inquiries. Along with the FBI search at Mar-a-Lago, federal prosecutors are questioning witnesses about his involvement in efforts to reverse his election loss; a House select committee held a series of hearings tying him more closely to the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol; and a District Attorney in Georgia is investigating potential election interference on the part of Mr. Trump and his allies.

James’s inquiry could wrap up sooner than those investigations. Rather than file a lawsuit that would take years to resolve, she could first pursue settlement negotiations with the former President’s lawyers to obtain a swifter financial payout. But if she ultimately sues Trump, and if James prevails at trial, a judge could impose steep financial penalties on Trump and restrict his business operations in New York. IANS