Fifth Amendment

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."

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 President Donald Trump invoked the Fifth Amendment during questioning by the New York attorney general's office a.

A biography of Trump said he took the Fifth Amendment in his 1990 divorce case. Trump is at the center of multiple investigations that are years in the making, and we don’t yet know whether he will be charged with any crimes. At an Iowa rally, Trump said: "Her staffers taking the Fifth Amendment, how about that?" "Individuals have a right to assert the Fifth to avoid making comments that may be incriminating. "They claim that even though they have nothing to hide, a prosecutor will be able to use the testimony against them in an unfair way to charge or convict them of something they did not do. He faces criminal investigations by the Justice Department and Fulton County prosecutors in Georgia. Earlier this week, the FBI executed a search warrant at his Mar-a-Lago estate. Trump said: "And I’m not even sure that he shouldn't have just gone and taken the Fifth Amendment and said, ‘Look, I don't get along with this man, Starr. He's after me. In 2016, he repeatedly criticized Hillary Clinton’s aides for taking the Fifth Amendment over questions about her emails. This is almost always an unfounded claim; there are very few cases in this country of a prosecutor ‘targeting’ an individual or acting in bad faith to use a person's testimony against them. 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. I have absolutely no choice because the current administration and many prosecutors in this country have lost all moral and ethical bounds of decency. The amendment protects against self-incrimination.

Here's what "the fifth" — the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution establishes a number of rights related to legal proceedings — means and doesn't.

In the past, Trump has repeatedly suggested that only people with something to hide avail themselves of the protection against self-incrimination. In a criminal case, prosecutors can’t comment on a defendant’s refusal to testify, and a jury can’t be advised that it’s OK to take defendants’ silence as a sign of guilt. The defendants have pleaded not guilty in that case, which involves claims of off-the-books compensation. James has said her investigation found evidence that the businessman-turned-politician’s company, called the Trump Organization, puffed up the value of real estate assets to snag loans, insurance and tax breaks for land donations. But even deciding to answer selectively could be risky: Responding to one question can enable the other side to argue that the witness can’t refuse to answer other, related questions. The Supreme Court has said that allowing that inference penalizes defendants for simply availing themselves of a constitutional protection. Donald Jr. and Ivanka reportedly gave their depositions recently, and it’s yet unclear whether they took the Fifth. The Supreme Court has even held that Fifth Amendment rights protected the jobs of public employees who were fired after refusing to testify in investigations unless they got immunity from prosecution. It’s a constitutional right that gets high-profile exposure in settings from Congress to TV crime shows, but there are nuances. But it has come to apply in non-criminal contexts, too. There are sometimes disputes over whether the right is being invoked inappropriately. The ex-president issued a statement saying he had done nothing wrong but was invoking the Fifth Amendment’s protection against self-incrimination.

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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