Former US president Donald Trump has invoked his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination as he testified under oath in the New York attorney general's long-running civil investigation into his business dealings.
About an hour after arriving at Attorney General Letitia James' Manhattan offices on Wednesday, Trump said he "declined to answer the questions under the rights and privileges afforded to every citizen under the United States Constitution."
"I once asked, 'If you're innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?' Now I know the answer to that question," the statement said. "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."
As vociferous as Trump has been in defending himself in written statements and on the rally stage, legal experts said answering questions in a deposition was risky because anything he said could potentially be used against him in a parallel criminal investigation by the Manhattan district attorney.
The Fifth Amendment protects people from being compelled to become witnesses against themselves in a criminal case.
Also, in case the attorney general's investigation leads to a civil case against Trump and it goes to trial, jurors could be told that he invoked his protection against self-incrimination.
'Mob takes the Fifth'
Wednesday's events unfolded two days after FBI agents searched Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida as part of an unrelated federal probe into whether he took classified records when he left the White House.
New York's investigation is led by Attorney General James, a Democrat who has said in court filings that her office has uncovered "significant" evidence that Trump's company misled lenders and tax authorities about the value of prized assets like golf courses and skyscrapers.
The company, Trump Organization, even exaggerated the size of Trump's Manhattan penthouse, saying it was nearly three times its actual size — a difference in the value of about $200 million, James' office said.
Trump has denied the allegations, contending that seeking the best valuations is a common practice in the real estate industry. He has also accused Attorney General James, who is Black, of racism in pursuing the investigation.
Trump previously criticised people for exercising Fifth Amendment rights.
"The mob takes the Fifth," Trump said during a 2016 campaign rally. "If you're innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?"
He was referring to people who had exercised their Fifth Amendment rights in an investigation relating to Democrat Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server for official correspondence during her time as secretary of state.
Clinton was Trump's opponent in the presidential election that year.
Source: TRTWorld and agencies
Elon Musk has accused Twitter of fraud, alleging the social media platform misled him about key aspects of its business before he agreed to a $44 billion buyout, as their court fight heats up.
The Tesla boss lodged the claim on late Thursday as he fights back against Twitter's lawsuit seeking to force him to close the deal, which he has tried to cancel.
Musk argued in the filing to a Delaware court that the number of users actually shown advertising on the platform is about 65 million lower below the firm's 238 million figure.
"Twitter's disclosures have slowly unraveled, with Twitter frantically closing the gates on information in a desperate bid to prevent the Musk Parties from uncovering its fraud," the claim alleged.
Musk last week filed his countersuit, which was finally made public on Thursday, along with a legal defence against Twitter's claim that he is contractually bound to complete the takeover deal.
The entrepreneur accused Twitter of not just deceiving him, but also of lying to US market regulators. He is asking the court to free him from the agreement and make Twitter pay him an amount in damages to be determined at trial, which set to open on October 17.
Billions of dollars are at stake, but so is the future of Twitter, which Musk has said should allow any legal speech -- an absolutist position that has sparked fears the network could be used to incite violence.
READ MORE: Elon Musk files counter-suit as legal battle over Twitter deal escalates
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_HshX6W9Q4[/embed]
'Twitter has complied in every respect'
In its own filing, Twitter rejected the mercurial billionaire's argument, calling it "as implausible and contrary to fact as it sounds."
The legal battle flows from Musk wooing Twitter's board with a $54.20 per-share offer in April, but then in July announcing he was terminating their agreement because the firm had misled him regarding its tally of fake and spam accounts.
Twitter, whose shares were up about 3.5 percent to $42.51 on Friday, has stuck by its estimates that less than five percent of the activity on the platform is due to software "bots" rather than people.
The social media platform told the court that Musk's claim that the false account figure tops 10 percent is "untenable."
Twitter also disputed Musk's assertion he has the right to walk away if its bot count is found to be wrong, since he didn't seek information on that topic when he made the buyout offer.
"Twitter has complied in every respect with the merger agreement," the company said in the filing made to Chancery Court, accusing Musk of contriving a story to escape a merger agreement that he no longer found attractive.
"Musk's counterclaims, based as they are on distortion, misrepresentation, and outright deception, change nothing," Twitter added. The social media platform has urged shareholders to endorse the deal, setting a vote on the merger for September 13.
READ MORE: Twitter stalls on document production — Musk's attorneys
Source: AFP
"Shakira and her team consider that this case constitutes a total violation of her rights," the statement reads, "since she has always shown impeccable behaviour, as a person and taxpayer, and total willingness to resolve any disagreement from the beginning, even before the criminal proceeding."
In July 2021, a judge at a court near Barcelona ruled that the Colombian singer could stand trial for alleged tax evasion of 14.5 million euros ($17 million) in Spain.
In a ruling obtained by CNN, the investigating magistrate said that there is "sufficient evidence" to hold a trial for Shakira's alleged tax evasion for the years of 2012, 2013 and 2014.
Judge Marco Jesús Juberías argued that Shakira lived more than 200 days in Spain in each of those three years, making her liable to pay taxes in the country.
The judge argued that Shakira and a financial adviser, also named in the ruling, used a series of companies in off-shore tax havens to attempt to hide the sources of her income during those years.
CNN has reached out to the prosecutor's office for comment, but there has been no response yet.
