Trump’s past comments on criminals pleading the Fifth resurface after he invokes right against self-incrimination

Trump and his allies previously suggested that only criminals exercise the right to refuse to testify

Donald Trump and his allies are once again facing the consequences of their past actions after the former president announced that he would take the Fifth Amendment and refuse to testify when faced with the prospect of giving a deposition in his fraud case.

The former president released a lengthy statement on Wednesday once again decrying the investigation being led by the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James, which he has long portrayed as a politicised “witch hunt” in the same vein as his criticism of the now-shuttered probe into the 2016 Trump campaign and the 2020 impeachment effort.

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In his remarks, he said that he “declined to answer the questions under the rights and privileges afforded to every citizen under the United States Constitution,” indicating that he had indeed plead the Fifth during his deposition to the New York attorney general’s office.

The Fifth Amendment protects Americans against self-incrimination, or being forced to admit one’s supposed guilt. It also protects persons from being forced to serve as a witness against another person. Generally, its use does not imply definite criminality.

But Mr Trump’s past statements on the use of that constitutional right by allies of his political opponents have left him open to criticism on the issue as both he and his close associates, like former spokesman Sean Spicer, have implied or said outright that the Fifth Amendment is only used by criminals.

At a campaign rally in September 2016 the former president incorrectly referred to the Fifth Amendment as “immunity” when discussing its use by a tech expert connected to Hillary Clinton during a congressional hearing about her use of a private email server while serving at the State Department.

“If you’re not guilty of a crime, what do you need immunity for?” he asked his crowd at the time.

At another campaign event, he questioned: "The mob takes the Fifth. If you're innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?"

Others, like Mr Spicer, addressed the same issue on Twitter around the same time.

Those inclinations towards an assumption of criminality are now coming back to bite Mr Trump as his critics on the left question why the former president felt the need to utilise the constitutional provision as he was questioned about a supposed pattern of misrepresenting his business’s assets to numerous financial entities including the IRS, lenders and insurance agencies.

“Donald Trump has the complete right to invoke the Fifth Amendment. We have the complete right under the First Amendment to mock him relentlessly for it after all the trash he talked in 2016,” tweeted Bradley Moss, an attorney with a law firm connected to the first impeachment of the former president.

Numerous others, like the ethics watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, also dredged up his old remarks on the subject, causing the term “Fifth Amendment” to be the highest trending term on US Twitter around noon eastern time.

Mr Trump tried to explain that inconsistency in his lengthy statement released via Truth Social on Wednesday.

"I once asked, 'If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?' Now I know the answer to that question,” he wrote.

“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.”