Trump, facing questions in New York civil case, backs down, pleads the Fifth

Donald Trump, who rarely backs down from a fight, is backing down from a fight with New York Attorney General Letitia James.

The former president, facing questions from James in a civil investigation into allegations that Trump and his company improperly inflated the value of his hotels, golf clubs and other assets, is invoking his Fifth Amendment protection against possible self-incrimination, a tactic he once derided on the campaign trail.

“I once asked, ‘If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?’ Now I know the answer to that question,” Trump said, casting the investigation, as is usual for him, as being part of a “politically motivated Witch Hunt supported by lawyers, prosecutors, and the Fake News Media.”

Legal observers had expected Trump to engage James, given his past statements about him being his own best spokesperson who seemed to enjoy sparring with lawyers in these kinds of settings.

It’s a fair bet that the plan to plead the Fifth was not his idea, but rather advice from his lawyers, who would have had to persuade him that not engaging James would protect him from making damaging statements that could aid prosecutors in a possible criminal investigation in the future.

Manhattan district attorney Alvin L. Bragg had indicated that he planned to monitor Trump’s deposition toward that end, so Trump invoking and repeating his Fifth Amendment privilege in response to James’s questions could forestall future avenues of criminal inquiry.

But invoking the Fifth doesn’t protect Trump in the civil matter being pursued by James. Unlike in criminal cases, jurors in civil cases can draw a negative inference when a defendant invokes the Fifth Amendment privilege.

And then there’s the court of public opinion. His statement calling the investigation a witch hunt might play with his base, but it’s not likely to sit well with people outside who will have reason to think he has something to hide by not answering the questions.

And then, one more thing, which is so very Trump: while staying silent in the courtroom, outside of pleading the Fifth, Trump has been busy online, sending out a series of posts, emails and videos attacking James.

In one post on his flailing social-media startup Truth Social, he called James a “racist”; in another, he noted his presence at “the very plush, beautiful, and expensive A.G.’s office. Nice working conditions, as people are being murdered all over New York – and she spends her time and effort on trying to ‘get Trump.’”

These kinds of things, again, play well to the base, but you have to think the lawyers didn’t sign off  on him thumbing his nose at the rest of us this way.