Photo Illustration by Kelly Caminero/The Daily Beast/Getty
With the FBI’s raid of Mar-a-Lago this week, former President Donald Trump is at one of his lowest moments since he left office.
After fighting off a subpoena for half a year, Trump was finally forced to testify on Wednesday at a closed-door deposition with New York Attorney General Letitia James over allegations of bank and insurance fraud at his family company—a civil case which could force it to close shop.
He pleaded the Fifth, still a self-incriminating tactic for a man who, during his 2016 presidential campaign, once declared: “If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?” While the move may spare him of criminal liability, it will only bolster the AG’s case in civil court, where staying silent can legally be perceived as damning evidence of its own.