Is Eric Trump invoking the Fifth Amendment to dodge testifying about Trump Organization finances?

Hunter
and
Daily Kos
25 August 2020

There's more information today about one of the apparently eleventy thousand separate investigations into Donald Trump's personal business dealings, this time from the New York Attorney General's office. And mainly what we now know is that Trump's second favorite son, Eric Trump, is refusing to even be interviewed by investigators probing the Trump Organization's apparent pattern of lying to lenders about their financial condition.

As reported by The Washington Post, Eric's lawyers are citing "the Constitution" as the reason he won't give testimony. That's right, the president of the United States' son is invoking the Fifth Amendment to dodge a law enforcement subpoena investigating President Crimesalot's corporate finances. And the attorney general's office is now going to court to force him to comply.

The Trump Organization and its legal team "have stalled, withheld documents, and instructed witnesses, including Eric Trump, to refuse to answer questions under oath," announced New York Attorney General Letitia James. "That's why we've filed a motion to compel the Trump Organization to comply."

The allegation that the Trump Organization, Trump's personal business and one also employing the rest of Trump's nonprofit-embezzling family, inflated their alleged assets in order to secure new loans, have been credibly swirling for years. The accusations gained new potency when longtime Trump lawyer Michael Cohen testified to Congress that yes, actually, Trump had very much been doing exactly that. Attorney General James tells the court in her filing that the OAG "determined that Eric Trump likely possessed information relevant to OAG's inquiry"—followed by several blacked-out lines—and served a subpoena to Eric in late May. Eric originally agreed to be interviewed, only to later change his mind; that, too, might have been intended as a stalling tactic.

To clarify, note again that this is a New York state investigation. It's separate from the unknown Trump-linked investigations still percolating inside the Department of Justice, in the Southern District of New York, the ones William Barr has dedicated himself to tamping out as apparent top leadership priority. Presidents cannot pardon state crimes.