Approximately one week ago, Donald Trump flew to New York to surrender and be formally charged by the Manhattan district attorney’s office with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, crimes that he could, theoretically, go to jail for 136 years over. (In reality and assuming he’s found guilty, the sentence would likely be far less than that, but nobody tell Melania, who appears to be banking on the full 1,632 months.) Anyway, Trump is now back in New York and the circumstances…are not much better!
On Thursday, the ex-president will be deposed under oath for the second time by the office of New York attorney general Letitia James. Trump was deposed by James’s team for the first time last August, after which the AG filed a $250 million lawsuit against Trump, his three eldest children, and the family business, alleging more than a decade of “staggering” fraud that allowed the family to rake in hundreds of millions in ill-gotten gains. (The scheme, according to James, relied on overvaluing Trump’s assets by billions of dollars.) In half a dozen posts beginning early Thursday morning, Trump ranted about the case on Truth Social, calling it “ridiculous” and “another unjust & ridiculous persecution of The 45th President of the United States” and claiming “NEW YORK STATE SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THIS INJUSTICE!” He also viciously attacked James, calling her a “racist” and a “LOWLIFE.” In an unintentionally hilarious turn, he claimed that Thursday’s proceedings will allow him to “finally be able to show what a great, profitable, and valuable company I built, actually, some of the greatest real estate assets anywhere in the world.”
Unlike his first round of questioning with James’s office, in which Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment rights over 400 times, the ex-president is expected to provide actual answers today. And while invoking the Fifth could hurt him at trial, as The New York Times notes, he may be f–ked either way:
While jurors in criminal trials cannot hold a defendant’s silence against him, in civil trials, they are permitted to take into account a refusal to answer questions—and infer that it means that the defendant had something to hide. If Mr. Trump refused to answer questions, it could seriously damage his chance of winning at trial.
But answering questions on Thursday could expose Mr. Trump to additional legal peril. Once he provides answers on a topic, he would essentially forfeit his right to refuse other questions on that same topic. And it can be easier to refuse to answer substantive questions altogether, than to respond to some while dodging others. The greatest risk to Mr. Trump would come if he went off script. Although he is no stranger to being deposed, there is a chance he could respond impulsively under intense questioning, as he has done in the past, actively confronting his interviewers. (He once told a lawyer that her questions were “very stupid.”)
In addition to potentially using what Trump says on Thursday against him, James, the Times writes, “could eventually share his statements with criminal prosecutors who are also investigating him.” Last December, the Trump Organization was found guilty of 17 different crimes, including tax fraud, conspiracy, and falsifying business records. The company’s longtime CFO, Allen Weisselberg, pleaded guilty and sentenced to five months in prison.
Trump has denied all wrongdoing in the civil suit brought by James.
Of course, the attorney general’s lawsuit is far from the only legal issue facing Trump, who is also under criminal investigation by the Fulton County district attorney for his attempt to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia; by the Justice Department for his handling of classified documents (and potential obstruction); and by the DOJ for his attempt to overturn the election and the insurrection that followed. (On Wednesday, The Washington Post reported that special counsel Jack Smith was looking into possible wire fraud related to Team Trump‘s fundraising activities following the last presidential election, and trying to “determine if former president Donald Trump or his advisers scammed donors by using false claims about voter fraud to raise money, eight people familiar with the new inquiries said.”)
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Bess Levin