Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment rights in his long-awaited deposition with the NY attorney general's office
Trump previously said innocent people don't plead the 5th. On Wednesday, he promised to do so in his deposition before the NY attorney general.
Julia Nikhinson/AP
- Trump promised to invoke his Fifth Amendment rights in a highly-anticipated deposition before NY AG Letitia James.
- He released a lengthy statement explaining why — and calling James a "failed politician."
- 'I did nothing wrong,' he insisted, but said he won't participate in a 'politically motivated Witch Hunt.'
Former President Donald Trump said he will invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination and not answer questions during a deposition on Wednesday with New York Attorney General Letitia James' office.
Shortly after his motorcade arrived at James' New York City headquarters in lower Manhattan at just before 9 a.m., Trump or an associate hit send on a lengthy public statement announcing his intentions.
In the statement, Trump lambasted James as a "failed politician" and accused her of having "intentionally colluded with others" in her three-year probe of the Trump Organization, calling the inquiry a political fishing expedition against his family.
James is wrapping up an aggressive three-year probe into an alleged decade-long pattern of financial wrongdoing at Trump Organization, the multi-billion-dollar conglomerate for which the former president is the sole owner and beneficiary.
At stake could be Trump's business itself. James has signaled that she is preparing an enforcement action that will be the massive investigation's final work product — a several-hundred-page lawsuit against Trump and his business that could seek millions in fines and even the dissolution of the company itself.
"I once asked, 'If you're innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?'" Trump said in his statement.
"Now I know the answer to that question. 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."
The statement continued: "If there was any question in my mind, the raid of my home, Mar-a-Lago, on Monday by the FBI, just two days prior to this deposition, wiped out any uncertainty. I have absolutely no choice because the current Administration and many prosecutors in this Country have lost all moral and ethical bounds of decency."
"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," it said.
Trump has previously indicated through his lawyers that pleading the Fifth was high among his options in fighting James' probe.
The legal upside of refusing to answer questions is obvious — Trump cannot inadvertently incriminate himself during his sworn, taped testimony, something that is especially important given that the Manhattan DA's probe into his business, while apparently stalled, is still ongoing.
But there is a downside.
Should James' eventual lawsuit against Trump go to a jury, the tape of Trump repeatedly pleading the Fifth to a long recitation of AG investigator questions will be played in open court. Under New York law, the judge will instruct jurors that they are allowed to draw what's called an "adverse inference" from the tape.
In other words, unlike in a criminal case, they'll be able to hold Trump's refusal to answer questions against him, as an indication of guilt.
Wednesday's highly anticipated deposition came after a months-long legal fight during which the Trump family unsuccessfully tried to get a New York court to invalidate subpoenas for testimony from James' office.
The AG is conducting a sprawling investigation into whether the Trump Organization engaged in financial fraud and violated tax, insurance, and banking laws.
Trump's two eldest children, Donald Jr. and Ivanka, were deposed last week, and Trump was seen arriving at James' office Wednesday morning.
Wednesday wasn't the first time Trump invoked his constitutional rights against self-incrimination. In 1990, he pleaded the 5th in response to questions about adultery during his bitter divorce proceedings with first wife Ivana.
But Trump adopted a different stance during the 2016 election, suggesting that staffers who had worked for then Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton had something to hide when they invoked their Fifth Amendment rights during a congressional investigation into her use of a private email server as secretary of state.
"The mob takes the Fifth," he said at a September 2016 campaign rally. "If you're innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?"