The real reason Donald Trump went ahead and testified to the New York AG for several hours today instead of pleading the fifth
Even though Donald Trump was ordered to testify on Thursday in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ civil probe into the Trump Organization, he still had the option of pleading the Fifth Amendment in response to every question. You can’t hide behind the Fifth Amendment to protect others, but you can always hide behind it to protect yourself.
So it stands out as notable that, according to major news outlets, Donald Trump went ahead and gave about seven hours of testimony on Thursday and “answered numerous questions.” If he were pleading the fifth, it would have gone by a lot more quickly than that. This amount of time points to Trump having given lengthier responses – actual answers – to the questions he was asked.
This raises a question of its own: why do that? The short answer is that while Donald Trump could have used the Fifth Amendment to avoid testifying about the crimes he’s committed within the Trump Organization, Letitia James could have used his refusal to defend the Trump Organization as a basis for cracking down on the Trump Organization.
In other words, Donald Trump was in a surreal no-win situation in this civil probe, where if he pleaded the fifth he was essentially forfeiting his company and its assets, but if he gave real testimony he was taking the risk that it could be used as the basis for additional criminal charges against him. And Trump apparently chose the latter.
If that sounds confusing, it is. But Letitia James spent a long time setting the stage such that the courts would sign off on putting Trump in precisely this no-win situation. Either option that Trump chose on Thursday – giving answers or non answers – was going to be a loss for him.
We’ll see what his seven hours of “testimony” today ends up being. Given Trump’ propensity (especially lately) for running his mouth in a way that further incriminates him, it’s entirely possible that Trump just gave the kind of testimony that’ll result in even more criminal charges against him, either from James or from the relevant prosecutor
But it’s not as if Trump had a better option. Pleading the fifth all day would have meant the end of his company and its assets. Of course Trump is likely to lose those anyway, because there was no testimony he could have given on Thursday that would have exonerated his company’s business practices.
To be clear, if Trump lied his way through his testimony on Thursday, that would be the dumbest move of all. At this late stage in this comprehensive of a probe, the New York AG already has a baseline of what really happened. It would be easy to catch Trump in any lie, and not only potentially set him up for perjury charges, but also use his dishonest answers as a basis for ruling against the Trump Organization. So if Trump did choose that mythical third option of “just lying,” then he chose the worst option of all.
