Former US President Donald Trump on Wednesday refused to answer questions in a civil investigation into his family's business practices, exercising his constitutional right to self-incrimination.
Trump is investigating whether New York Attorney General Letitia James inflated the value of hotels, golf courses and other real estate to take out loans on favorable terms. While taking a positive stance on the investigation, the assessment for receiving an understated tax exemption.
"I did not answer questions about the rights and privileges accorded to all citizens under the U.S. Constitution," Trump said in a statement, referring to James as "a rebel and out-of-control prosecutor." '' he denounced.
Trump left Trump Tower in a blue suit with an American flag pin on the collar, fists raised, and drove in a convoy to James' office.
Children's testimony
Trump's two adult children, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, are the family's global real estate empire. It also plays an important role in the organization. They avoided testifying but lost. Recently, they answered questions in an investigation by the state attorney general. James has exercised her rights more than 500 times.
James said of her investigation found significant evidence that the Trump organization overseen by the former president manipulated property values.
Mr. Trump has in the past ridiculed those who invoked the Fifth Amendment and avoided answering detailed questions that may have engaged him in wrongdoing.
In 2016, he read about an aide to Hillary Clinton, who lost her presidential election six years ago, in her private emails when she was Secretary of State while investigating her server. Complained about exercising their rights.
"As you can see, the mob took his fifth," he told political supporters.
"Your family, your company, and everyone around you has become the target of an unsubstantiated, politically motivated witch hunt supported by lawyers, prosecutors and the fake news media. When the time comes, you have no choice," he wrote in a statement.
He turned up for the New York investigation after FBI agents traveled to Florida in search of classified documents he had when his term as president ended in January 2021. It was two days after he raided one of his Atlantic mansions, Mar-a-Lago.
In January, President Trump turned over 15 boxes of documents from his White House tenure to the National Archives, as required under US law. But government officials suspect he has more classified material in his Mar-a-Lago, and on Monday he secured court clearance for a search that lasted more than nine hours. Did. Agents searched his office and cracked open his safe before removing about a dozen more boxes.
There is no other choice, Trump says. 49}
Trump, the current administration [President Joe Biden] and many prosecutors in this country have lost all boundaries of moral and ethical decency.
"Therefore, on the advice of my attorney and for all the reasons set forth above, I have refused to answer questions concerning the rights and privileges accorded to all citizens under the United States Constitution." he wrote
A representative for James' office did not immediately comment on Trump's use of the Fifth Amendment, but said she has followed the law in the past.
} "No one in this country can choose how the law applies to them, and Donald Trump is no exception," James said in May when a federal court tried to block an investigation. "As we have said all along, we will continue this investigation without a hitch."
