Trump Takes the Fifth. Over and Over.

Trump had his deposition earlier today about his business dealings. He invoked the 5th on all questions. Came out of the deposition holding his fist in the air. Like a political prisoner. Here's his statement about why he took the 5th.

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

There was a little more to it when he went after people taking the 5th in 2016.

“So there are five people taking the Fifth Amendment. Like you see on the mob, right? You see the mob takes the Fifth. If you’re innocent why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?”

Perfect.

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ElwoodBlues · M

LOL!!! If Trump is innocent why is he taking the Fifth Amendment?

One additional interesting point: Trump's deposition is for a civil case. And in a civil case, in some cases the other party is allowed to treat taking the 5th as a sort of cover-up:

In civil litigation in federal court, a witness’s invocation of the Fifth Amendment may give rise to an adverse inference “when independent evidence exists of the fact to which the party refuses to answer.”

“Once a witness in a civil suit has invoked his or her Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, the trier of fact is entitled to draw an adverse inference from the witness's refusal to testify.” Chaffee v. Keller Rohrback LLP

Just found this:

Courts in New York have routinely permitted negative inferences following a party-defendant’s Fifth Amendment invocation.

Ynotisay · M

@ElwoodBlues Oh, you know, "political witch hunt." Nothing to do with the law. Which means all we'll be hearing is the whining about persecution from him and the cultists. It's what they live for.

Ynotisay · M

@ElwoodBlues That's interesting. Usually drawing an inference is off the table. I'll take that to mean they were asking him questions they knew the answers to.

ElwoodBlues · M

@Ynotisay Yeah, it's one of the ways a civil case can be different from a criminal case. IANAL, but much of criminal law is designed to err on the side of not wrongly punishing the innocent, while civil law tries to do the just thing.

justanothername · 51-55, M

@Ynotisay The Republican Party should be renamed Hypocrites R Us for all the whining and blaming they do.

Ynotisay · M

@justanothername But the rest of us are 'snowflakes,' right?

justanothername · 51-55, M

@Ynotisay The rest of us aren’t being investigated by the FBI.
Trump pleads the “fifth” way too much to be innocent.