Proving yet again that failed, one-term former President Donald Trump fears one thing — testifying under oath — above all others, an appeal filed on his behalf and that of his two oldest children, Don Jr. and Ivanka, demands that the Trumps be given “immunity” if they agree to obey a legal subpoena and to give sworn depositions.
Yes, you read that correctly: He wants immunity because he knows he’s committed numerous crimes and is terrified of being charged with them.
According to CNN, the legal reasoning behind the appeal is nothing short of absurd:
In their appeal filed Monday, Trump and his children Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. argued that if New York Attorney General Letitia James wants their testimony, she should bring them before a state grand jury investigating the Trump Organization, where witnesses receive transactional immunity for their testimony in New York.
The Trumps’ attorneys wrote that if the attorney general’s office is allowed to depose their clients, the state’s constitutional and statutory protections can easily be “eviscerated if the same agency involved in the criminal investigation simply opens up a ‘civil’ investigation into the very same matters.”
“The question is whether the (Office of the Attorney General) can use the office subpoenas to avoid the grand jury process and compel testimony from those whom it does not wish to grant immunity,” the appeal states.
A judge has previously ruled that if the Trumps want to avoid legal liability for giving depositions, they can always invoke their Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. However, such a move could come back to haunt the Trump family and their company, the Trump Organization because the number of times they cite the Fifth can be introduced as evidence against them in a civil ruling such as the one New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking. A ruling against the Trump Organization could also lead to the company being shut down and its assets seized by the state of New York.
Eric Trump, who serves as Executive Vice President of Trump Org., gave a deposition in October of 2020 in response to to a deposition from AG James.
