harry smith on the entrepreneur bringing a long lost tradition back to his city announcer: this is nbc nightly news with lester holt good evening. i m kate snow in for lester tonight for four hours today, former president trump was deposed inside the offices of the new york attorney general, called to answer questions in a civil probe looking at trump organization s business practices and whether it exaggerated their finances but mr. trump answered only one question his name his lawyer saying he invoked his fifth amendment right against self-incrimination over and over again. the deposition separate and apart from the fbi search of trump s mar-a-lagoeek of scru home is the latest chapter of intense week of scrutiny for the former president as he contemplates another run for president, stirring outrage among his supporters and complicating matters for investigators. kelly o donnel starts us off from washington reporter: deposition day in new york for former president
take the take the tail. i ll take the cockpit. they were gonna have a suicide mission and crashed themselves into the flight that eventually crashed in virginia. so hats off to the to the military. they protect our skies. any sense, john from you as a pilot of you know, why wouldn t if the plane the citation and it s not just a small private jet. it s a pretty hefty medium sized private jet. why wouldn t potentially the pilot land sooner if he came into any trouble if he is incapacitated ? what would explain the u turn? that s it s a mystery to me. i can t explain any of it. to me. this is almost as mysterious there. here s the flight path of that aircraft. um and you can see it took off . the lowest portion of the blue line is blunt, ville, tennessee. that s where the plane took off. it flew up toward, um, new york s long island. and then it made that
trump. how do you feel, mr. trump? how do you feel? reporter: but today, his blunt, brash words saved for a press release, as he refused to answer questions from the new york attorney general s office, part of a long-running civil investigation of the trump family business practices i decline to answer questions under the rights and privileges afforded to every citizen under the united states constitution a right he is free to assert fifth amendment, fifth amendment, fifth amendment. horrible, horrible reporter: but one he s repeatedly mocked. see the mob take the fifth. if you re innocent, why are you taking the fifth amendment? reporter: a trump lawyer in the room says the former president did read a statement calling the inquiry the greatest witch hunt in the history of our country and accused attorney general letitia james of quote opening campaigning on a policy of destroying me at an april campaign event, james touted her case.
research and influence what s being taught to our young people. officials are raising alarms, looking at one chinese academic program that s on campuses across the country, that is called the confucius institute. i sat down with the senator, and he filled us n. u.s. intelligence agencies continue to warn of beijing s spying. commercial espionage and the stealing of intellectual property. the chinese counterintelligence threat is more deep, more diverse, more vexing, more challenging, more comprehensive and more concerning than any counterintelligence threat i can think of. eric: a report from the director of national intelligence is blunt. quote: china s intelligence services will exploit the openness of american society, especially academia and the scientific community. and now lawmakers are focused on new allegations of china s attempts to influence america