Trump Pleaded The Fifth 97 Times To Avoid Admitting To Adultery

[bucolic_frolic]

In the summer of 1990, at the height of his bitter divorce from his first wife, Donald Trump was carrying on a very public extramarital affair with a former beauty queen, Marla Maples.

As part of the couple’s divorce proceedings, Ivana Trump’s lawyers asked him under oath about his dealings with other women and whether he had been faithful to his wife.

Instead of answering, Donald Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. Over the course of five depositions that summer, he was asked approximately 100 questions related to marital infidelity. He pleaded the Fifth on 97 of them.

“Donald preaches about his devotion to the Second Amendment, but it was the Fifth Amendment that was his favorite when he was deposed in the divorce with Ivana,” wrote biographer Wayne Barrett in his 1992 book, Trump: The Greatest Show on Earth. A New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement report later verified Barrett’s reporting on those depositions, which are still sealed.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-pleading-the-fifth_us_57ed79dee4b024a52d2de46d

______________________________

He may be cooked. 'You plead the 5th amendment over issues of adultery in your marriage and divorce
and you want to stir up trouble in my household with my husband, after we saved our marriage? Good
luck with that one, buster!'

[SwissTony]

1. Help me out here, good American people.

As you will have guessed, I'm not an American and my knowledge of American law is, to say the least, minimal.

But I thought the purpose of the Fifth Amendment was to allow witnesses to avoid self-incrimination. For example....

Q: Did you shoot this guy? A: I plead the Fifth.
Q: Did you steal the money? A: I plead the Fifth.

etc

The word "incrimination" seems (at least to me, in my naivety) to relate to some degree of criminal activity. So, how does it work if the "activity" does not entail any degree of criminal behaviour as I believe infidelity does not contain a criminal aspect?

Just wondering!

Can't wait for the second debate.

[jamese777]

2. Self-incrimination

In a civil lawsuit means not saying anythng that would put the claimant at a financial
disadvantage. In tne case of Trump's divorce, admitting adultery would effect the amount of alimony he would have to pay.
After the divorce Trump bragged that Ivanka only got what was in the pre-nuptual agreement.