UNDER OATH, TRUMP INVOKES THE FIFTH
Deposition in case comes amid flurry of legal developments
Donald Trump spent hours in a deposition Wednesday with the New York attorney general and repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to answer questions, the latest in a series of legal developments for the former president considering another run for the White House.
Trump emerged from the session with praise for the “very professional” way Attorney General Letitia James’s team handled the meeting, in which he refused more than 400 times to answer questions about his businesses, property valuations and loans, according to a person with knowledge of the discussion.
This person, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe the session, said Trump stated his name, his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself, and from then on replied to many questions with two words: “Same answer.”
Less than two years after leaving office, Trump faces legal jeopardy from multiple directions, with criminal probes into his possible withholding of classified documents and efforts to overturn the 2020 election results; James’ civil probe; and congressional inquiries into his taxes and his conduct related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
In a lengthy statement on Wednesday, the former
president denied any wrongdoing and accused the U.S. government of unfairly targeting him in multiple ways.
On Monday, FBI agents searched his residence and office space at his home in Mar-a-Lago, a Florida resort property. People familiar with that investigation said the agents were seeking classified documents and other presidential records amid a months-long disagreement between federal officials and Trump’s advisers about whether he withheld important
files or items that belonged to the government.
One of Trump’s lawyers said agents removed about a dozen boxes of material that had not been brought back to Washington in January, when the government first asked Trump to return what he had taken to comply with the Presidential Records Act.
The following day, FBI agents involved in a different case took the cellphone of one of Trump’s most forceful congressional allies, Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa. The
court-approved seizure was part of an expansive Justice Department investigation into efforts by Trump supporters to block Joe Biden’s electoral victory by trying to advance fake electors in late 2020, said people familiar with that investigation, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss it.
On Wednesday, Trump arrived at a Manhattan office building to be deposed in James’ civil investigation of his business dealings.
Delaney Kempner, a
spokeswoman for James, a Democrat, confirmed that the attorney general was in the room and “took part in the deposition, during which Mr. Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.” She said James will “pursue the facts and the law wherever they may lead. Our investigation continues.”
Over the years, Trump has mocked others for taking the Fifth, suggesting that it showed guilt. “If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?” he said about his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, in 2016.
Since 2019, Trump has faced criminal and civil investigations into his business practices at the Trump Organization, before he entered the White House. The criminal probe, led by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, appears to have lost momentum since the arrival of District Attorney Alvin Bragg in January. The civil inquiry is proceeding, however.
Trump’s deposition before James, along with testimony by his daughter Ivanka Trump and son Donald Trump Jr., had been postponed from last month because of the July 14 death of his ex-wife Ivana Trump.
Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr., who both served as executives in the family business, were deposed recently and answered questions, said a person familiar with the investigation, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity. Their brother Eric Trump, who was also a lieutenant in the company, took the Fifth more than 500 times when he sat for questioning in October 2020 in the same investigation, according to public disclosures made by James.
That Eric Trump refused to answer questions — while his siblings, two years later, were forthcoming — could reflect that attorneys for the family think the new district attorney would not pursue a case against them. Two veteran prosecutors resigned in protest this year after learning Bragg was not authorizing them to seek an indictment against Donald Trump.