trump empire. and what he found than probably wouldn t shock anyone today. but back then it was a big deal. tim o brien discovered that donald trump s much lauded business excellence was actually far less impressive than trump had anyone to believe. he found that donald trump had been significantly overstating his net worth by billions of dollars. that he wasn t remotely close to being a billionaire. and so in 2005, tim o brien wrote a book exposing donald trump s prolific lies, and exaggerations about his wealth. donald trump reported by suing time o brien for defamation a year later, and that is how we got to see what it s like when donald trump testifies under oath. quoting from the transcript, attorney, mr. trump, have you always been completely truthful in your public statements about your net worth of properties? trump, i try. attorney, have you ever not been truthful? trump, my net worth blocked away, and it goes up and down with a market and with attitudes and w
new information about the fbi s search of donald trump s florida home. trump world has now reportedly started speculating about who in the former presidents orbit, might have talked to the fbi, and what it could mean for the investigation. we will have more on that later. but let s go back in time a little. to 2005. more than a decade before donald trump s first run for president, before he started fighting with racist birtherism conspiracies, back when he was just a real estate guy, with a funny hairdo, and a reality tv show, that year the intrepid journalist, tim o brien, the guy on the left, the side to side digging into the so-called trump empire. and what he found then probably wouldn t shock anyone today. but back then it was a big deal. tim o brien discovered that donald trump s much lauded business success was actually far less impressive than trump had anyone to believe. he found that donald trump had been significantly overstating his net worth by billions of dollar
Reporting and your analysis, susanne craig, pulitzer prize winning investigative journalist for the new york times. now to for the right down with all this mean for trump, legally, let s turn to joyce vance. former united s attorney for the northern district of alabama, co-host of the sisters in law podcast. joyce it was good to see you. thank you for being with, us you heard my competition with susanne about why donald trump would invoke the fifth amendment in this trial which is largely about his business. but there is something that susanne was hinting at and that there is a lot donald trump can say because he s a big talker that could be held against him. and he may be worried about other cases in addition to this particular one which he was deposed. well looking at it from the perspective of trump s lawyers, this is the sort of client that you do not want to give free range to in a deposition. you want to do everything that you can do to constrain his testimony. so the statement
Only answered one question. and that was his name. he pled the fifth. on every other question he was asked. now the former president isn t the first trump to take this approach with the new york attorney general. back in 2020, trump s adult son, eric, pled the fifth nearly 500 times when questioned by the attorney generals office as part of this case. but trump s other adult children, ivanka, and don jr., were both questioned in the same case. just last week at a court to nbc news, neither of them plead the fifth at any time in their questioning. trump s refusal to answer questions comes as the investigation into his business appears to be zeroing in. according to the associated press, the new attorney generals office is nearing the end of its investigation and quote, could decide to bring a lawful lawsuit, seeking financial penalties against trump or his company, or even a ban on them being involved in certain types of businesses. it was also the matter of the ongoing criminal inves
good to see you. clearly, there was some calculated on the part of donald trump today that plead the fifth. why would it make sense for him to do that in this particular trial? with most devices businesses, it s not a criminal trial. well definitely was a lot of thought went into it from trump and his legal teams, and i think the reason why is that you got this civil case, if that goes to trial, it can be used against him in that form. and there s a lot of people have talked about that today as people have been mulling over this case, but you have to look that he s got this criminal case going on in new york. they are looking at him individually, and right now that doesn t seem to be like it s percolating that if he didn t take the fifth and he says something, in a deposition, it could be used against him and that form. and also, he is heading to trial, both the trump organization and his cfo, and that could also you know, anything that he says in a