Donald Trump takes the Fifth in NY real estate inquiry

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Two days after his home in Mar-A-Lago was raided by the FBI, ostensibly in search of classified documents that belong to the National Archives, former President Donald Trump appeared before investigators for the New York Attorney General to answer questions about business practices of the Trump Organization, based in New York City.

According to Trump, he invoked his Fifth Amendment, the right to refuse to answer the questions, more than 400 times. He simply repeated, “Same answer as before” each time, answering only one question.

For years, Attorney General Letitia James has been trying to prove that Trump fraudulently inflated or deflated the value of his real estate properties to gain advantages in property taxes and loan terms. James, a Democrat, campaigned on taking down Trump and began her investigation shortly after being elected in 2019.

The deposition had been scheduled before the FBI raid on Mar-A-Lago. However, it had been postponed until after the Trump family buried and mourned the death of Trump’s former wife, Ivana, who died July 14.

““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,” Trump said in a statement after the deposition, which lasted at least four hours. Trump was in the Attorney General’s offices for about six hours altogether.

Before he went in for the desposition, he wrote a statement on Truth Social: “In New York City tonight. Seeing racist N.Y.S. Attorney General tomorrow, for a continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt in U.S. history! My great company, and myself, are being attacked from all sides. Banana Republic!” Attorney General James took part in the questioning, sources reported.

In a statement on Wednesday, Trump also said, “I once asked, ‘If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?’ Now I know the answer to that question. 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.”

Meanwhile, more leaders are speaking out about the Monday raid, when 40 or more FBI agents broke into Mar-A-Lago and occupied it for 9.5 hours. The FBI and Department of Justice have remained silent on the raid.

Regarding that raid for documents, Trump wrote, “At the end of his presidency, Barack Obama trucked 30 million pages of his administration’s records to Chicago, promising to digitize them and eventually put them online — a move that outraged historians. More than five years after Obama’s presidency ended, the National Archives webpage reveals that zero pages have been digitized and disclosed.”

35 COMMENTS

  1. For the leftists:
    1. Exercising your right to silence guaranteed under the 5th Amendment is proof of nothing. Anyone has the right at any time to refuse to answer a question under oath for any reason.
    2. “For years, Attorney General Letitia James has been trying to prove that Trump fraudulently inflated or deflated the value of his real estate…” is, once again, proof of nothing. It is a claim by an individual who has despised Donald Trump for years, and has taken extraordinary steps in an attempt to catch him in some infraction.
    .
    When an attorney general is conducting a witch hunt, they will find a witch. There is no justification for the accused witch to assist the AG.

    • CB: You will write anything to protect the most destructive force since the civil war. You should be ashamed.

      • And, true to form, Lucinda pops in, makes a claim and backs it up with… nothing.
        Seriously, Lucinda, if you cannot even cite something in my comment, and directly dispute it, you are wasting both my time and yours.
        .
        However, if it was Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, or any other politician taking the 5th 400 times in response to a witch hunt, I would be defending their right to do so as well. When Bill Clinton refused to answer questions for that ridiculous Starr probe, I fully supported it. It was a witch hunt, and the accused should never cooperate with the hunters.

  2. Now maybe the people who call Sarah a Quitter will understand what it means to be Attacked with Frivolous Lawsuits.. She had to Leave Office because she didn’t have the Millions to fight the attackers that Trump has. This is really terrible what the Democrats are doing. They are following in the footsteps of the 1860 Democrats Party. Back then they would rather burn their country to the ground rather than free the slaves. Now they would rather burn the country down than see Trump get elected. We have to support him in everyway we can. Vote Trump ,Sarah, and Kelly. He asked us to at least do that.

      • At 75 I could be charged with robbing the cradle. I like supporting, Sarah, but not as much as you Fantasized. Find another ankle to bite..

  3. Trump’s business is privately held. He can value things any value he wants. There is a LOT of footage of James promising to get Trump that will end up in court and in public. Cheers –

    • Sorry, agimarc, that’s not an accurate statement, but it also appears to be the reason why so many supporters are outraged. It is in fact illegal to tell Bank X that unit Y is worth $2million but then report to tax authorities that unit Y is worth $500k. It is either fraud with a private enterprise (Bank X) or fraud with tax authorities. It’s quite a factual matter and it’s well documented in loan applications, appraisal reports, tax filings, etc. No one should be above the law–regardless of political party/affiliation, personal wealth, or position.

      I’m sure there are lots of statements from James saying she was going after former President Trump–the investigation has been ongoing for years. None of this was a surprise, especially not to the former president.

      • Z, your examples insinuate guilt – based on Zero evidence. I would not have been even that polite to the NYag.

    • Really? Why?
      Will you drop your Trump hatred if it turns out everything the AG of NY is accusing him of is bogus? If Trump walks away without any fines. Or, even better, if the AG is forced to pay his legal fees, like that prostitute/pornstar did?
      How many times does Trump have to skate away scot free before you drop it and admit you are wrong?

  4. It seems pretty cut and dry to me. The Biden totalitarian regime is scared. They’re afraid of losing power. So they go after Trump the only way they can, continuing to muddy up the waters in court. They’ve tried this countless times before mind you, but time is on their side. Biden has called in many historians to his office and together they have cautioned him that the United States is transitioning to a totalitarianism state. Reminiscent of the days before the civil war. He even called in Bill Clinton a few months ago and asked him about the midterms and what he can do because obviously he needs help and his vice president is of little use. People have told him he needs to back off but unfortunately he has little control over the puppeteers pulling his drinks. Since the unwinding of the American political system beginning with Obama and continuing to this day with Clinton behind behind closed doors with her PAC, the nation is in a critical time. We could all sit back and watch them self-destruct but the fear is you’re going to take us all down with them. We must all act by voting in person on election day. Don’t trust that your vote will count through a rigged voting machine. I refuse to believe that the majority of the country voted for the lame person now infesting the oval office. Through strong arm gestapo like measures on election night and possibly self deteriorating algorithms, the damage was done and we need to be vigilant to make sure that it doesn’t occur again.

      • Gee, Lucinda.
        Once again, a comment disparaging another MRAK reader, but not backing it up with any substance.
        Perhaps in the future you can point out what, exactly, Greg said in his comment that makes you think he is not reasonable? Then point out how the disconnect can be overcome?

        • OK CB smartypants, here’s an unreasonable claim by Forkner: “Through strong arm gestapo like measures on election night and possibly self deteriorating algorithms, the damage was done and we need to be vigilant to make sure that it doesn’t occur again.”

          The obvious response to this is to ask Forkner for EVIDENCE of gestapo and algorithms and damage.

          • Yet, instead of asking for evidence, you make a comment about reason?
            See, if you just posted a comment/reply asking for specific backing information, I would not have to call you out so often.

    • That a NY liberal prosecutor in hounding Trump for purely partisan reasons.

      You’ll deny it, but if you took the time to lol you’ll find harassment of Trump was her campaign platform.

      • MA: So somewhere there is a statement by Letitia James promising to harass Trump? I looked. Not there. She wrote that she would “pursue litigation against Trump”. That’s a fair approach for an attorney general, no?

    • A crock that the FBI and DOJ are politicized? Hillary’s missing e-mails were bleached by her and blessed by the FBI (FIB sic). Hunter’s laptop facts that showed he and “Big Guy” Joe were involved in nefarious financial deals with the Ukraine and Chinese businesses were not pursued prior to the 2020 election because the truth would have helped Trump. Instead, the DOJ, FBI, CIA, Joe, and over 50 Intelligence Officers said it was “Russian Disinformation” even though they knew it was factual.

      Even a Yankee should be able to discern the truth…

      • You’re letting your ideology get in the way of plain logic. This was nothing like a “raid” and was nothing more than the law working for everyone. Warrants are served all the time without folks going nuts over them. Now just wait for the indictment. Heheh!

        • You are correct. Warrants are served all the time, and people do not go nuts over them.
          However, there is a wide gulf of difference between the way the warrants were served to Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump for essentially the same request, preservation and return of documents.
          What is curious is how incriminating evidence about our current pResident was known to the FBI, and ignored. It is still being ignored. No warrant. No preservation/retention letter. Nothing.
          .
          The issue is not the warrant, it is how the warrant was carried out.

          • The warrant was not “essentially the same request.” This warrant was carried out similar to Trump’s former attorney (Michael Cohen) when the warrant was to search a personal property. Hillary Clinton had nothing of the sort.

        • It was for government documents.
          And, that is not the point.
          .
          The point is when Hillary was served with a warrant, she was allowed a huge amount of latitude to respond, and her team spent weeks “coordinating” schedules.
          Trump had his home invaded without warning.
          .
          Both warrants were for items that could easily be delivered/surrendered. But, only one person had the FBI show up at their home uninvited.

          • You still don’t get it.
            The DOJ has been after Trump for months to get these documents and been shined on by the grifter. And when you show so little respect for law enforcement you can hardly expect to be treated with kid gloves. Further, it’s becoming more apparent daily that these documents DOJ was after are classified documents that Trump had no business hoarding. He may well go to jail for them as they are felonies.
            Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy IMO.

  5. Very concise analysis of what the FBI was looking for at his home. Of course Trump toolk the 5th, the revolutionaries are serious in retaining power. An actually popular leader who looks out for all Americans is a very dangerous person.

    ‘https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/08/11/part-4-what-was-in-the-trump-documents-creating-such-fear-in-doj-and-fbi/#more-236424

    • The author you cite referred to the Trump documents as “simple records”. Instead, they might (MIGHT! don’t jump on my ass) be related to nuclear weapons, a serious thing indeed.

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