Trump stays silent in business investigation
NEW YORK: Donald Trump has declined to answer questions under oath about alleged fraud at his family business, as legal pressures pile up for the former president whose house was raided by the FBI just two days ago.
Mr Trump on Wednesday (local time) said he had “no choice” but to invoke the Fifth Amendment – which allows individuals to remain silent under questioning – during hours of deposition at the New York attorney general’s office in Manhattan.
“I declined to answer the questions under the rights and privileges afforded to every citizen under the United States Constitution,” Mr Trump said in a statement.
“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.”
After about six hours, Mr Trump emerged from the office building where the deposition took place, waving through the closed windows of his vehicle at a small crowd of onlookers as his motorcade pulled away.
“A very professional meeting,” he wrote on his Truth Social site. “Have a fantastic company with great assets, very little debt, and lots of CASH. Only in America!”
The deposition followed a FBI search earlier this week at Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, signalling an escalation of legal woes for the 45th president.
Mr Trump on Wednesday again took aim at the search, decrying what he called a lack of “moral and ethical bounds of decency”. He said his team had complied with an official request to install an extra lock on a storage area at the residence.
“Then on Monday, without notification or warning, an army of agents broke into Mar-a-Lago, went to the same storage area, and ripped open the lock,” he said on Truth Social.
Mr Trump had arrived in a convoy of cars guarded by Secret Service agents at the offices of New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Ms James suspects the Trump organisation fraudulently overstated the value of real estate properties when applying for bank loans, while understating them with tax authorities to pay less in taxes.
If Ms James, a Democrat, finds any evidence of financial misconduct, she can sue for damages.