Trump pleads the fifth in New York civil deposition
Fox News' David Lee Miller reports on why the former president declined to answer the New York attorney general's questions on his business dealings.
Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin declared that former President Trump should be ineligible to run for re-election because he invoked his Fifth Amendment rights.
Rubin’s Wednesday column, "Taking the Fifth should disqualify a politician from taking office," details the latest reason why a liberal pundit feels Trump should be forced to sit out the 2024 presidential election.
"Trump invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 400 times in New York’s investigation into his business’s finances. Of course, the defeated former president and alleged mishandler of classified material has every right to avoid self-incrimination, but that doesn’t mean he’s protected from adverse judgment, either from the jury in this civil suit or from voters," Rubin wrote. "Indeed, taking the Fifth — especially concerning his alleged misconduct related to the attempted coup — should disqualify him from the presidency."
Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin declared that former President Trump should be ineligible to run for re-election because he invoked his Fifth Amendment rights. ((Photo by: William B. Plowman/NBC/NBC Newswire/NBCUniversal via Getty Images))
TRUMP INVOKES FIFTH AMENDMENT RIGHTS IN DEPOSITION FOR NEW YORK AG JAMES' CIVIL INVESTIGATION
Rubin, one of President Biden's most rabid media boosters, quoted frequent Trump critic Laurence H. Tribe, a constitutional scholar at Harvard Law School, who said a president arguably has a duty to "avoid invoking various otherwise available privileges — including the privilege to withhold criminally incriminating information."
Tribe then told Rubin that, "In that special sense, a president or a former president, more than any other public official or private citizen, arguably betrays his or her duty to the American people by taking the Fifth."
Rubin wrote that "oaths mean little to Trump."
She also quoted liberal scholar Norman J. Ornstein, who believes the "country’s interests meant nothing" to Trump.
"The only oath he has taken is to his own greed and self-preservation," Ornstein said before Rubin added, "But that does not mean voters can ignore the obvious conflict that occurs when someone simultaneously thwarts a government investigation and pledges to enforce the Constitution."
Former President Donald Trump said he invoked his Fifth Amendment rights, per the advice of his attorneys, during his deposition as part of New York Attorney General Letitia James’ civil investigation. (Alex Brandon)
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Rubin eventually admitted that "the Constitution spells out no disqualifications for federal office, other than conviction through impeachment and Section 3 of the 14th Amendment," but insists "voters certainly should consider the underlying conflict when a candidate for office takes the Fifth, especially when the issue goes to the core of our democracy."
Earlier this month, Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment rights, per the advice of his attorneys, during his deposition as part of New York Attorney General Letitia James’ civil investigation, calling it an "unfounded politically motivated Witch Hunt" and adding that he had "no choice" due to the Biden administration and prosecutors across the nation having "lost all moral and ethical bounds of decency."
Washington Post headquarters. (REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo)
Trump was set to sit down with attorneys from the state attorney general’s office behind closed doors, just days after the FBI raided his home at Mar-a-Lago, as part of an unrelated federal investigation involving the National Archives and Records Administration and classified materials the former president allegedly took with him when he left office in January 2021.
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Trump said in a statement after the decision: "What Letitia James has tried to do the last three years is a disgrace to the legal system, an affront to New York State taxpayers, and a violation of the solemn rights and protections afforded by the United States Constitution… the United States Constitution exists for this very purpose, and I will utilize it to the fullest extent to defend myself against this malicious attack by this administration, this Attorney General’s Office, and all other attacks on my family, my business, and our Country," Trump said.
Fox News’ Joseph A. Wulfsohn and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
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