I do in a newly released portion of a taped deposition former president Donald Trump did
this I declined to answer the question I declined to answer the question same answer same answer
same answer same answer same answer same answer same answer same answer same answer same answer
more than 400 times Trump pleaded the fifth to a rapid-fire line of questioning coming from
the New York attorney general Leticia James's office part of her civil investigation into
the Trump organization's business practices the deposition a rare window into how Trump acted
under oath anyone in my position not taking the Fifth Amendment would be a fool an absolute fool
and a major reversal from what he once argued in public on the campaign Trail and as president
you see the mob takes a fit if you're innocent why are you taking the Fifth Amendment
in the August deposition Trump used his opening remarks to lash out at the attorney general who
is sitting in the room with him claiming the probe was political and repeating one of his familiar
phrases this is the greatest Witch Hunt in the history of our country and criticizing how James
campaigned for her office it's important that everyone understand that the days of Donald Trump
are coming to an end promising to bring Trump to Justice we cannot permit a renegade and out
of control prosecutor to use this investigation as a means of advancing her political career all
claims James denies the contentious sit down took place just two days after the FBI searched Trump's
Mar-A-Lago home for classified documents one month later claiming you have money that you do not have
does not amount to the art of the deal it's the art of the steel James announced her office's
250 million dollar civil lawsuit against Trump three of his children and the Trump
organization accusing them of manipulating the value of properties to make more money
many questions directed to the former president during the deposition focused on financials you
reviewed this document with Alan weisselberg and your son Don Trump Jr before it was finalized
as part of the 2019 statement of financial condition is that correct same answer Trump
continued to plead the fifth when asked about the company's former CFO Alan weiselberg who
is now serving time after making a plea deal with the Manhattan District Attorney's Office
in a separate case Mr weiselberg do you have plans to return to Trump work when you're done
a case that found the Trump organization guilty on 17 criminal counts including tax fraud
and the Trump organization denies the allegations made by the aeg's office including those against
the Trump family and Company Executives this case is expected to go to trial in October Aaron Trump
and his attorneys have tried to delay that start so far they have been unsuccessful all right Brian
of course that timing puts you right ahead of uh the beginning of the primary season thank you and
Ryan Goodman joins me along with John Dean both out front so Ryan we know that Trump obviously has
previously given his opinion of people who plead the fifth right that this is for uh something the
mob does right you only do it if you're guilty but just taking aside his point of view from a
legal perspective right he went in there chose to do this under legal counsel what does it tell you
that he chose to invoke at more than 400 times so I think it means he's in trouble legally at
least in the civil case if you're in a criminal case and he pleads the Firth that can't be used
against him but in a civil case there's plenty of New York state law and around the country they can
absolutely in fact the jury will probably see the same videotape in full each time somebody
uh try to play that because as we were joking if we played all 400 everybody that would have
still taken several minutes yeah that's right so they could make 400 adverse inferences in
a certain sense uh meaning that they can say because he took the fifth it is a suggestion
of wrongdoing and the American public can make the same inference themselves in law you can do
it in a civil suit and we could do it ourselves to think of it that way and it's interesting that
he himself said you know anybody in my position would be a fool and absolute fool for not taking
the fifth well his uh son Don Jr and Ivanka Trump according to CNN's reporting within the two weeks
before his deposition they were deposed they didn't take the fifth right so and he did and
as you say it's crucial that it can be used as evidence in the civil case so John let me play
some more uh video from the Trump deposition as Ryan's pointing out that the Federal grand jury
will see this is just after Trump stated he would be taking the fifth throughout the deposition so
he announces this and then this happens so Mr Trump I take it you are are not going to
answer any questions about your preparation today with your council is that correct
and then should I say this or should I respond to that just read that
for all of the reasons provided in my answer which is Incorporated herein in its entirety
I declined to answer the question that was the first time and then of course there were about 400
after that John you say his decision to do this to invoke the fifth in this way is unprecedented
absolutely I I certainly know uh Nixon gave a number of depositions post-presidency and I've
looked around uh to see if he did and there's no indication he ever gave a fifth amendment uh
invocation uh he didn't do so when he was before a grand jury still looking at Watergate after
he'd left the office and I can't find Aaron any president who ever has invoked the Fifth
Amendment so this is unprecedented wow which is amazing and Ryan it's just as you point out
shows he's could possibly be in real trouble to do that because it can be used against him uh but
there's the other legal issues and I'm not even talking about the January 6 in the Federal grand
jury in Georgia and all of those issues how about just basically the grand jury that was
just convened in Manhattan to begin presenting evidence in a case related to Trump's role in
hush payments uh to Stormy Daniels the adult film star this case seemed to be going nowhere and now
suddenly you've got the D.A bringing Witnesses and you've got a grand jury what does that mean
so it sounds like they're very serious um you don't bring a grand jury unless you're seriously
considering criminal charges and New York has a special rule for the statute of limitations that
otherwise people might have thought would have run by now due to covid so so it got a yet an
extra you gotta You Gotta Buy you gotta yeah and everybody did in a certain sense all their cases
so I think that's very serious and it does mean that uh the district attorney might be mounting
a criminal case now it has to be a pretty sophisticated case because the charge for
falsifying his business records for hush money payment would be a misdemeanor they have to tie
it to another crime but that might be like a New York state election law crime and that's what
the focus will be on so all of this mounting just as people were thinking perhaps it was only only
the Federal grand jury in January 6th then Georgia all of these things as well John I want to ask you
about what's going on with President Biden and the classified documents though as well because we're
now reporting that the FBI searched President Biden's think tank in November after his legal
team told the National Archives that they found classified documents there but we didn't find out
about it then and in fact it was months before we learned the classified documents were found
in that office uh we may never would have found out about them being in his home if journalists
hadn't reported that right it wasn't team wasn't the White House nobody else put this information
out if this is just so simple and there's no there there why is there why is it so complicated why
is nobody putting the truth out there uh it does it look like there's something to hide
well that's the impression they're giving with the mishandling of the communications of what is going
on uh it's surprising that as sophisticated as the Biden uh operation is that they don't recognize
you've got to get the truth out get it out fast and get it out in full because that's the sort of
Impressions we get that they're hiding something we know this was a voluntary uh invitation for
the FBI to come in and do the search uh apparently they we don't know what they found or didn't find
but it is not good for the Biden people to have these kind of stories constantly drip drip drip
right and they do it's constantly drip drip drip thank you both very much John Dean Ryan Goodman