Judging Freedom - Judge Orders Trump & Kids to Testify in NY

Episode Date: February 18, 2022

Judge Orders Trump to Testify in New York Civil-Fraud Probe #TrumpSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hello there everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here with Judging Freedom. Today is Friday, February 18. It's about 2.50 in the afternoon here on the East Coast. Yesterday afternoon at about this time, a New York State Supreme Court justice, not far from where I'm seated at the moment, ordered former President Donald Trump and his children, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, to sit for civil depositions in an investigation of the Trump organization. Now, this would not be the first time that a former president has testified. Ronald Reagan testified in a criminal trial as a defense witness when his former Secretary of Defense, Caspar Weinberger, had been indicted. Weinberger was convicted and then eventually pardoned by George H.W. Bush. But this is

something that's very bad news for Donald Trump. He had two major setbacks. There are many litigations in which he, as the former president, is involved. This is not a criminal investigation. If it were a criminal investigation, it would be inconceivable that the government would get to question him because that just doesn't happen in criminal cases. Sometimes defendants, potential defendants, try and talk the government out of indicting them. I've never heard of that being successful. What's at stake here? Well, the two setbacks that President Trump had last week both involved his businesses owning and operating expensive high-end commercial properties. on which the president has relied and bankers have relied and taxing authorities have relied

and insurance carriers have relied are no longer valid and we can't stand behind them going back to 2012. So the documents that this company Mazars, M-A-Z-A-R-S, Inc., produced in behalf of the Trump Organization from 2012 to 2021, according to the accountants that prepared them, are no longer valid. The reason for the civil investigation is to determine whether or not Donald Trump or his children or the corporate entity, the Trump Organization, engaged in fraud by lying about the value of its assets. The allegation is that the Trump people told the government that an asset was of low value, a bank that the same asset was of much higher value, and an insurance carrier that the same asset was of much higher value and an insurance carrier that the same asset was

at higher value still. That can be either a civil wrong by having perpetrated a fraud on the taxing authorities, on the bank, and on the insurance company if either of them were harmed because of it, or it can be a crime by submitting false documents in an effort to trick somebody into believing them. We don't know which it is. We don't know what the evidence says that the state has, but the state served a subpoena to testify on Donald Trump and his two eldest children. Trump's lawyers challenged it, and yesterday they lost the challenge. So if this deposition happens, and depositions today are on tape, so you will see on the evening news everywhere, Donald Trump invoking the Fifth Amendment. He has every right to invoke the Fifth Amendment,

which guarantees your right to remain silent, which doesn't mean you have something to hide, even though Trump himself famously said, only the mob invokes the Fifth Amendment. What do I have to hide? Because whatever you say could very well harm you. And you must invoke the Fifth Amendment consistently, meaning you can't pick and choose which questions to answer and which questions to decline to answer. The only two questions you can answer while still invoking the Fifth Amendment are your name and where you live. But if you answer anything beyond that, then you've waived your Fifth Amendment right, and then the court will compel you to answer. Eric Trump, who's already been examined under oath by the lawyers for the Attorney General of New York, who's conducting this investigation, invoked the Fifth Amendment over 500 times in a four and a half to five hour deposition. So that's probably what President Trump will do.

It's going to be very difficult for him. We all know how strong he is. We all know how opinionated he is. We all know how self-confident he is. But he can say nothing, nothing beyond who he is, where he lives, and that he's invoking the Fifth Amendment. If he loses his temper, decides to challenge the prosecutors, launches into some explanation of two words or 200 words, he'll give up that right. He doesn't need that advice from me. He's got good

lawyers, and they'll give it to him. They'll give him that advice. I think this is bad news for Donald Trump and for his family and for the Trump Organization. I don't know where it's going to go, but these are two significant setbacks. They'll come to a head soon. Judge Napolitano, judging freedom. Thank you.