Times aren’t great for former President Donald Trump right now. In the midst of the ever-growing litigation that could be coming his way with regards to January 6 and the recent FBI search warrant conducted at Mar-a-Lago over classified White House documents, Trump’s business empire is also in the middle of an investigation into whether he fraudently inflated the value his properties.
With a multitude of legal battles possibly coming to head for Trump, the former leader of the free world is growing increasingly paranoid of internal rats within his inner circles according to a report from Rolling Stone.
As the federal and state investigations into Trump and his orbit swell, so have the former president’s suspicions, according to two sources familiar with the matter and another two people close to the twice-impeached former Oval Office occupant.
This summer, Trump has asked close associates if they think his communications are being monitored by the feds, or — per his phrasing — “by Biden.” As a source close to Trump describes it to Rolling Stone: “He has asked me and others, ‘Do you think our phones are tapped?’ Given the sheer volume of investigations going on into the [former] president, I do not think he’s assuming anything is outside the realm of possibility.”
Rolling Stone
Going back though to the New York investigation focussing on Trump’s business practices, Wednesday the 45th president was summoned to New York Attorney General’s office as part of Leticia James’s office where plead the fifth more than 440 times according to NBC News.
…while Mr. Trump’s decision not to answer questions may complicate his defense, there are numerous legal reasons for him to have done so.
Most immediately, Mr. Trump could have unintentionally aided the attorney general’s case against him by providing substantive answers. He also could have unwittingly aided the parallel criminal investigation into similar conduct being conducted by the Manhattan district attorney’s office. The district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, had said he would monitor the interview closely.
And if the attorney general finds that any of Mr. Trump’s responses contradicted evidence from her inquiry, the inconsistencies could prompt a separate perjury investigation.
NBC News
Pleading the fifth is in no way an admission of guilt, however, Trump himself has been pretty upfront about what he thinks of people who use that constitutional right to not incriminate themselves.
