President Trump’s 7 Hours of Questioning in New York Fraud Lawsuit

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Donald Trump, the former president of the United States, was asked a lot of questions during a court session with New York’s Attorney General. At first he wanted to not answer any of the questions as it could be self-incrimination, so he tried to exercise his Fifth Amendment right (his right to stay silent). But after a while he changed his mind and ended up answering all of them for nearly seven hours!

Attorney General Letitia James and her lawyers had a meeting with the Republicans all day. She is suing President Trump because she claims that he gave wrong information to banks and business partners about the worth of his properties, such as hotels and golf courses. This lawsuit is called ‘The Art of the Steal’ and in response to it, Trump said he took the Fifth in a New York civil investigation, which means he didn’t answer questions so that he would not have to incriminate himself. All of this raises legal questions.

Trump went to James’ office in a Manhattan skyscraper and his lawyer Alina Habba said he was ready and happy to tell the story of his successful business. After he was done talking, Christopher Kise (a lawyer for Trump’s companies) said that Trump spent seven hours explaining how great his businesses had been doing.

The activities that are being discussed in this case were very successful for the banks and for the Trump companies. People won’t think there was any wrong-doing when all the facts about how well everyone did are revealed. This lawsuit is separate from the criminal charges brought against Trump by a court recently, which caused him to be in court for the first time as a former president.

At a news conference on Wednesday, James refused to answer a question about something called a deposition. Before that, he met with someone’s lawyers and wouldn’t answer most of their questions. He used the Fifth Amendment more than 400 times! At that point in time, there wasn’t yet a lawsuit but it looked like something related to how Trump had valued his company might turn into a criminal case.

In a video recording of his deposition, Trump said that it would be really stupid to not take the Fifth Amendment as he thought a prosecutor might use what he said to make him into a criminal.

“If you make a very small mistake, like saying it was a sunny day when it was actually only slightly cloudy, law enforcement can act in a way that you probably have never seen before – because I have experienced it,” he said.

The prosecutor charged the company because they weren’t honest about the money they used to pay someone called Michael Cohen. Cohen was helping to stop people from talking about something that Trump said never happened. Also, James has accused Trump of lying and making up fake numbers on his financial records.

On Thursday morning, Trump said on social media that the lawsuit against him is “ridiculous”. He then went to the attorney general’s office and stayed there with them until 6:15 pm. He didn’t talk to any reporters after he left.

In October, James has a court hearing that he is planning. There might be videos of Trump talking shown during the hearing if nothing gets fixed before then. The meeting on Thursday was between James and Trump secretly.