Former President Donald Trump declined to testify more than 400 times because he thought it could incriminate him in a civil fraud investigation, a newly surfaced video shows.
Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination hundreds of times in his deposition in the New York attorney general’s fraud probe last summer, according to a court filing.
The video obtained and released by CBS News on Tuesday starts with Trump sitting in a conference room in Manhattan answering questions from Attorney General Letitia James, who is not in the frame.
‘Anything you say in this examination may be used in a civil proceeding, and that can include a civil enforcement proceeding or a criminal action. Do you understand that?’ asks James.
Trump responds: ‘I think.’
‘Is that yes?’ says James.
‘I don’t know what I did wrong, but the answer is yes, I do understand,’ says Trump, who wore a blue suit with an American flag lapel pin and a red tie.
James then goes over the Fifth Amendment right.
‘You have the right to refuse to answer any question if a truthful answer to the question would tend to incriminate you,’ she says. ‘Do you understand that?’
Trump replies, ‘Yes.’
The ex-president then read from a prepared statement. He called James ‘a renegade and out of control prosecutor’ and reiterated his view that ‘this is the greatest witch hunt in the history of our country’.
‘Anyone in my position not taking the Fifth Amendment would be a fool, an absolute fool,’ said Trump. ‘I respectfully decline to answer the questions under the rights and privileges afforded to every citizen under the United States Constitution.’
Senior enforcement counsel Kevin Wallace does the rest of the questioning in the video.
Trump answered the first three questions by saying, ‘For all of the reasons provided in my answer, which is incorporated herein in its entirety, I decline to answer the question.’
Then Wallace told Trump that in order ‘to speed things up’, he could simply say, ‘same answer’ – which he did so more than 400 times.
In September, more than a month after Trump sat for the deposition, James’s office sued him, his three eldest children and the Trump Organization, alleging that they inflated property and asset valuations to obtain tax breaks and more favorable loans.
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