5th Amendment

The former president invoked his right against self-incrimination during a deposition that the New York attorney general's office had hoped would be a ...

In his April remarks on the matter, Mr. Bragg said new witnesses had been questioned and additional documents had been reviewed, although he declined to provide details. In January, Mr. Trump asked a judge in New York to strike down a subpoena from Ms. James seeking his testimony and personal documents. While Ms. James has contended in court papers that the Trump Organization provided bogus valuations to banks to secure favorable loans, Mr. Trump’s lawyers might argue that those were sophisticated financial institutions that turned a hefty profit from their dealings with Mr. Trump. But if she ultimately sues Mr. Trump — and if Ms. James prevails at trial — a judge could impose steep financial penalties on Mr. Trump and restrict his business operations in New York. Two days after his home was searched by the F.B.I. in an unrelated investigation, Mr. Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment right while openly questioning the legitimacy of the legal process — as he has with the nation’s electoral system — and insulting a law enforcement official sitting just a few feet away. If Mr. Trump deviates from his plan to remain quiet, the attorney general’s office could argue that he opened the door to answering some questions and they may later ask a judge to compel him to answer. A misstep by Mr. Trump would have been a boon for Manhattan prosecutors, but it is unlikely that they were counting solely on the interview to change the course of their investigation. For years, the district attorney’s office has been investigating whether Mr. Trump fraudulently inflated the value of his properties to gain loans and tax breaks, and prosecutors were presenting evidence to a grand jury in the case early this year. Relying mostly on footage from a rally Mr. Trump held last month in Alaska, the video features his America-in-decline message that has become mostly standard boilerplate in his speeches and rallies. It was not the first time, however, that Mr. Trump had taken the fifth in a civil proceeding. Ms. James would most likely seek a settlement that includes some financial penalty for Mr. Trump and that possibly forces his company to adopt changes to the ways it operates. Now, he’s doing so with the New York attorney general because “it’s legally useful to him to do so and two, he knows painting himself as the victim is powerful to people in his camp,” Mr. O’Brien said.

Donald Trump's deposition comes days after his Mar-a-Lago home was searched by the FBI, related to an investigation into presidential records.

"I once asked, 'If you're innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?' Now I know the answer to that question," Trump wrote in announcing his decision to invoke his right against self-incrimination. Her office said in May that it was near the end of its probe and that investigators had amassed substantial evidence that could support legal action, such as a lawsuit, against Trump, his company or both. If he is sued, jurors may be instructed they should presume his answers would have hurt him.”

Former President Donald Trump leaves Trump Tower to meet with New York Attorney General Letitia James for a civil investigation on Aug. 10, 2022 in New York ...

New York Attorney General Letitia James has personally implicated Trump and members of his family in the alleged fraud. The Jan. 6 committee is continuing to scrutinize their potential role in the Capitol attack, as is the Justice Department. The DA’s office in Fulton County, Georgia, is also investigating Trump and his allies’ alleged effort to tamper with the state’s election results. The two offices are collaborating, and so anything Trump says under oath on Wednesday could aide the DA’s investigation, which has been fraught. Trump confirmed he would be testifying while railing against the investigation in a Truth Social post on Tuesday. “In New York City tonight. Seeing racist N.Y.S. Attorney General tomorrow, for a continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt in U.S. history!” he wrote. "I once asked, 'If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?' Now I know the answer to that question."

Donald Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during a deposition before lawyers from the New York Attorney General's Office.

"Attorney General Letitia James took part in the deposition during which Mr. Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination." Our investigation continues,” the spokesperson for her office said Wednesday. NBC News reported Trump Jr. was interviewed a couple of weeks ago and Ivanka spoke to investigators last week. Trump's two eldest children, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, recently testified in the civil probe. "Now I know the answer to that question. 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."

A rule of law developed that is supposed to apply equally to government rulers. The constitutional structure is meant to prevent statocrats from treating the ...

It is instead the sort of abuse of power targeting ordinary citizens, who have come to be engulfed in a net of minute and complex laws and regulations. Note that none of the recent presidents and very few politicians have done anything, or even indicated any intention of doing anything, about this evolution. It dos not show in the search of the house of a former ruler who is apparently suspected of stealing public documents related to his tenure at the res publica. (Res publica, which means “public thing” in the sense of “public affairs” in Latin, ultimately gave the word “Republic.”) Countervailing powers and institutions provide incentives to statocrats not to pursue authoritarian temptations. The fear of Leviathan—the all-powerful state modeled by Thomas Hobbes—and a certain mistrust of those in power are inseparable of the classical liberal and libertarian tradition. We must of course remain vigilant that laws not be used to harass or destroy political opponents.

Former President Donald Trump will sit for a deposition on Wednesday with the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James amid its ongoing probe into ...

They also cited the Fifth Amendment as an option for the president in his deposition. But New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron in February rejected the lawyers’ attempts to dodge the testimony and asserted that Trump and his children all had the right to show up to the depositions and claim their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. The former president’s meeting on Wednesday came just days after the attorney general’s office questioned Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, both of whom did not plead the Fifth. The former president is also the subject of a parallel criminal investigation being conducted by the Manhattan district attorney’s office into whether he fraudulently inflated property values. Trump had tried for months to avoid Wednesday’s deposition — which comes at a high stakes moment for the former president just two days after the FBI raided his Florida home in an investigation into the alleged mishandling of White House records. A crush of media followed the former president from his Midtown Manhattan apartment at Trump Tower downtown to the attorney general’s office around 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning.

The former president declined to answer questions from the office of the New York State attorney general, Letitia James, who leads one of a number of ...

Mr. Trump has also opined on the pros and cons of a president answering questions under oath. The judge, Arthur F. Engoron, sided with Ms. James and ordered the Trumps to testify, a ruling that an appellate court upheld. It was an embarrassing two-week episode that compelled Mr. Trump to pay a $110,000 penalty. Mr. Trump has long dismissed the inquiry from Ms. James, and fought hard against sitting for questioning under oath, but was compelled to do so after multiple judges ruled against him this spring. Mr. Trump’s legal team had not alerted the attorney general that he planned to invoke his Fifth Amendment rights. Mr. Trump has ridiculed witnesses who have refused to answer questions, once remarking at a rally that refusing to answer questions under oath was an indication of guilt relied upon by the mafia. In the statement, he called Ms. James, who was sitting a few feet away, a “renegade prosecutor.” (In fact, he has exercised his Fifth Amendment right before, refusing to answer questions in a deposition taken in connection with his divorce from his first wife, Ivana Trump.) For years, Mr. Trump has treated everything that happens on a legal front with his business as a potential opportunity to shape public perception. Two days after his home was searched by the F.B.I. in an unrelated investigation, Mr. Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment right while openly questioning the legitimacy of the legal process — as he has with the nation’s electoral system — and insulting a law enforcement official sitting just a few feet away. The search was an embarrassing reminder of the multiple inquiries swirling around the former president in connection with his conduct in the final weeks of his presidency. Ms. James is now left with a crucial decision: whether to sue Mr. Trump, or seek a settlement that could extract a significant financial penalty.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump leaves Trump Tower to meet with New York Attorney General Letitia James for a civil investigation on August 10, 2022 in New ...

Legal experts say Trump's lawyers are in possession of a copy of that search warrant and that they can disclose its contents if they choose. 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. But after failing in court efforts to block those subpoenas, Donald Jr. and Ivanka answered questions from James' investigators last week, NBC previously reported. "So there are five people taking the Fifth Amendment. Like you see on the mob, right? Fischetti described the mood in the room as polite and not tense. In Georgia, a special state grand jury is investigating possible criminal efforts by Trump and others to interfere in the 2020 presidential election in that state as part of a nationwide push to overturn Biden's victory in the race for the White House. On Tuesday, a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., upheld a lower court ruling dismissing an effort by Trump to block the House Ways and Means Committee from obtaining several years of his federal income tax returns and those of a number of Trump business entities from the Treasury Department. In addition to the probe of records at Mar-a-Lago, the Justice Department is reportedly investigating events leading to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot by thousands of Trump supporters, who for hours disrupted the confirmation of Biden's electoral victory by a joint session of Congress. The warrant and a related affidavit in support of it would detail what the FBI was looking for and how the agency believed there was probable cause that a crime or crimes had been committed that related to that evidence. Our investigation continues." 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." Former President Donald Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment right more than 440 times Wednesday in refusing to answer questions at a deposition by lawyers for New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is investigating the Trump Organization's business practices, a source with knowledge of the session told NBC News.

Former president Donald Trump said in a statement that he has had no option but to use the Fifth Amendment in the New York attorney general's investigation ...

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New York, Aug 11 (IANS) Former US President Donald Trump kept his date with New York Attorney General in Manhattan but declined to answer questions from the ...

In January this year, she accused the Trump Organization of repeatedly misrepresenting the value of its assets to bolster its bottom line, saying that the company had engaged in “fraudulent or misleading” practices. “He should know that we here in New York, and I, in particular, we are not scared of you,” she said in her victory speech. Three months later, she filed a motion to hold Trump in contempt for failing to turn over documents. In March 2019, she started a civil investigation that focused on whether Trump had systematically mis-stated the value of his assets to gain financial advantage with lenders and tax authorities. In January, Trump asked a judge in New York to strike down a subpoena from James seeking his testimony and personal documents. James, a former New York City councilwoman from Brooklyn, who rose to become the city’s public advocate, was elected attorney general in 2018, becoming the first Black woman to hold statewide office. Trump’s company provided the statements to banks in hopes of obtaining loans. But Trump invoked his constitutional right against self-incrimination during the deposition, declining to answer questions. 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. It was an embarrassing two-week episode that compelled Trump to pay a $110,000 penalty. “Now I know the answer to that question.” His decision could have a significant impact on any trial if James’s investigation leads to a lawsuit.

Former President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he invoked the Fifth Amendment during a deposition as part of the New York attorney general's civil ...

Invoking the Fifth Amendment looks different in different settings, according to the Legal Information Institute. If you are being questioned by government investigators, it usually means exercising the right to remain silent. But in civil cases, like Trump's, that's not always the case. Here’s what you need to know about the Fifth Amendment. That right was broadened with the Supreme Court's landmark Miranda v. That's what Trump invoked in declining to answer the New York attorney general's office's questions. The attorney general's office confirmed this.

Mr Trump once declared only the 'mob' pleads the Fifth Amendment, but this week he did just that. Here's what it means. NEW YORK, NEW YORK - AUGUST 10: ...

Mr Trump has denied the allegations, slamming it as a political “witch hunt” by Democratic officials. The Supreme Court has said allowing that inference would penalise defendants for using a form of constitutional protection. Donald Jr. and Ivanka reportedly gave their depositions recently, and it’s yet unclear whether they took the Fifth. In practice, people can choose to answer some questions but not others – although this can be risky. The court has also questioned the reliability of confessions made under duress. It’s a departure from his previous stance in which Mr Trump has suggested only people with something to hide use the protection.