Trump news today: Trump pleads the fifth 400 times in deposition video as he is accused of lying to judge

Donald Trump pleaded the fifth more than 400 times while sitting for a deposition in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ civil fraud case, it has been revealed.

On Tuesday, AG James’ office released a video of Mr Trump’s deposition from 10 August last year where he was questioned about an alleged sprawling financial fraud scheme where he and some of his adult children manipulated their worth to benefit from loans, tax breaks and other benefits.

In the deposition, Mr Trump repeatedly asserted his fifth amendment right or responded “same answer” to questions, as he claimed “anyone in my position not taking the fifth amendment would be a fool, an absolute fool”.

During a rare moment where he did speak, he pushed his claim that he had been unfairly treated in a “witch hunt”.

“This whole thing is very unfair,” he claimed.

In September, AG James announced a civil lawsuit against Mr Trump, the Trump Organization and three of his adult children Donald Trump Jr, Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump. The Trump children were also deposed throughout the long-running investigation.

One of Donald Trump’s allies found himself under fire this week for arguing that there’s no legislation that could have prevented the beating by police officers that led to the death of Tyre Nichols, 29, in Memphis, Tennessee.

The chair of the House Judiciary Committee said on NBC’s Meet The Press that he was unsure that “any law, any training, any reform” could have prevented the assault that took place during a traffic stop.

Bodycam footage has been released showing the fatal beating of Mr Nichols, which has prompted new calls for police reform.

The Independent has more:

Donald Trump has been accused him of lying in sworn court records and to a judge in his New York civil fraud case.

New York Attorney General Letitia James’ is suing Mr Trump, the Trump Organization and three of his adult children over an alleged sprawling financial fraud scheme where they manipulated their worth to benefit from loans, tax breaks and other benefits.

On Tuesday, AG James sent a letter to the judge in the case, accusing Mr Trump of lying on record in the case.

In the letter to New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, she said that Mr Trump and his attorneys had falsely denied “facts they have admitted in other proceedings” and

“A number of the denials are demonstrably false and actually contradict sworn statements by the defendants in other proceedings,” she wrote.

AG James’ office is asking the judge to schedule a conference to discuss the issue and is calling for sanctions on the former president.

Nancy Mace is one of the Republican Party’s most interesting members in the House.

After surviving a Trump-endorsed challenge to her reelection last year, the South Carolina representative returns to Washington as one of the party’s most outspoken members on issues of gender and even the far-right’s embrace of conspiracies.

She sat down with The Independent’s Eric Garcia for an exclusive interview about her style of politics and new home in the GOP’s slim House majority.

Former president Donald Trump inundated the Internal Revenue Service with a barrage of Freedom of Information Act requests meant to shed light on any internal deliberations agency officials were making as they considered turning his tax records over to the House Ways and Means Committee.

The former president famously claimed to be under audit by the agency for years, and resisted calls to release his financial records publicly until the supposed audit concluded. It never did.

Read more in The Independent:

Arizona Republicans selected former state treasurer and Donald Trump aide Jeff DeWit to be the party’s next chairman, turning to a familiar face with relationships across the party fractured after its worst election in decades.

Mr DeWit replaces firebrand Trump ally Kelli Ward, who helped the former president in his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss and was a vocal proponent of his false claim that the election results were fraudulent.

She broke with precedent in last year’s primary, openly promoting a slate of election deniers who went on to lose the general election in November.

“I’m going to work for you and we’re going to unify,” Mr DeWit said after winning. “And we’re going to get back to beating Democrats and winning elections.”

Republican Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina drew a difference between the investigation into documents found in locations associated with President Joe Biden and documents located at former president Donald Trump’s home.

The Independent spoke to Ms Mace in an exclusive interview for a profile to be published this weekend. The interview came as Mr Biden faces scrutiny after documents from his time as vice president were found both at his home in Delaware and the Penn Biden Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

Read more from Eric Garcia:

Donald Trump lashed out at Ron DeSantis and called him “disloyal” as the Florida governor weighs a run for the 2024 Republican nomination against his former political benefactor.

Mr Trump spoke to Politico and CNN on his plane as he campaigned in New Hampshire and South Carolina, two states that have the first primary contests in the country.

“When I hear that he might [run] I think it’s very disloyal,” Mr Trump told reporters.

Mr Trump criticised Mr DeSantis for his record during the Covid pandemic.

“There are Republican governors that did not close their states,” Mr Trump said. “They’re trying to rewrite history.”

He added: “Ron would have not been governor if it wasn’t for me.”

Donald Trump is suing journalist Bob Woodward of the Watergate scandal fame for releasing his interview recordings to the public, claiming that he didn’t give him permission to use them for an audiobook.

The former US president filed a lawsuit on Monday against Woodward, the publisher Simon & Schuster and its parent company Paramount Global for releasing the recorded interviews which took place between December 2019 and August 2020.

Mr Trump claimed in the lawsuit that he consented to be recorded for a series of interviews but only for a book Woodward was working on, rather than for direct publication. Woodward’s “Rage” was published in September 2021.

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