Donald Trump was silent on Wednesday before the New York attorney general who was hearing him under oath on suspicion of financial fraud within his Trump Organization group, amid a political storm after a spectacular FBI search of his Florida home. .
The former president of the United States has been the subject since 2019, along with two of his children Ivanka and Donald Jr, of a civil investigation by the highest magistrate of the state of New York, Letitia James.
He was heard in Mrs. James’s office this morning in Manhattan, but he invoked the famous 5th amendment to the US Constitution, which authorizes not to testify against oneself. In 2016, however, he had criticized the use of this fifth amendment, as recalled by the US parliamentary channel C-SPAN.
Victim of a “witch hunt”
In a statement, Donald Trump said he was once again the victim of a “witch hunt” and claimed to have “refused to answer questions, by virtue of the rights and prerogatives that the Constitution of the United States grants to all citizens.”
Arriving Tuesday night in the economic and cultural capital of the United States, the businessman announced that he was going “to see the racist attorney general of New York.”
This hearing of Donald Trump, who left power on January 20, 2021 without recognizing the victory of Joe Biden and who wants to run again in 2024, had been requested by Letitia James for months and had been set for July 15. But the death of Donald Trump’s first wife, Ivana, had further postponed the event.
The Trumps finally bowed to pressure after three years of investigation by Letitia James. According to CNN, Ivanka and Donald Jr. were quietly heard by the Attorney General’s office in late July and early August.
Civil lawsuits?
The civil investigation against the family group Trump Organization had been opened after the explosive testimony in Congress in Washington of one of Donald Trump’s former personal lawyers, Michael Cohen, alleging fraudulent valuations, either up or down, of assets within the Trump Organization, to get loans, get tax cuts or better insurance compensation.
Letitia James had assured in January that she had “discovered significant evidence suggesting that Donald Trump and the Trump Organization had falsely and fraudulently valued a series of assets”, in particular golf courses or the personal triplex of the American billionaire, located in the Trump Tower in New York. Accusations dismissed by Donald Trump’s lawyers.
The Attorney General does not have the power to indict Donald Trump, but she can initiate civil proceedings and, in particular, claim economic damages. The billionaire, who is ostensibly flirting with a new candidacy in 2024, claims his innocence in all these cases.
Source: BFM TV
