Politics

Trump once said only 'the mob' uses the Fifth Amendment. Now he's invoking it in a deposition with the New York attorney general.

Donald Trump pointing
Former President Donald Trump. Brandon Bell/Getty Images
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Former President Donald Trump's decision on Wednesday to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination comes four years after he said that's what mobsters do.

"You see the mob takes the Fifth," he said in April 2018. "If you're innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment."

Trump declined to answer questions during a Wednesday deposition at the office of New York attorney general Tish James, who is investigating whether the Trump Organization engaged in financial fraud and violated tax, insurance, and banking laws.

Trump addressed his about-face on the Fifth in a lengthy statement.

"I once asked, 'If you're innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?'" he said in the statement. "Now I know the answer to that question. When your family, your company, and all the people in your orbit have become the targets of an unfounded, politically motivated Witch Hunt supported by lawyers, prosecutors, and the Fake News Media, you have no choice."

Here's Trump in 2018:

 

 

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Nicole Gaudiano was a correspondent at Insider's Washington, D.C. Bureau, covering covers culture wars in politics. She previously covered national K-12 education policy for POLITICO and Congress and politics for the USA Today/Gannett Washington Bureau. Her assignments included covering Joe Biden as a senator, 2008 presidential candidate and vice president. She also covered Sen. Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign. She previously wrote for Air Force Times, The Record in New Jersey, and The (Annapolis) Capital. She grew up in New Jersey and Tennessee and graduated from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.