Former president Donald Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment legal rights on Wednesday. Declining to respond to inquiries from the New York State attorney general's office as part of a civil examination right into whether he and his business had misled lending institutions and tax obligation authorities about the worth of his assets. "Under the advice of my counsel as well as for every one of the above factors, I declined to respond to the inquiries under the rights as well as privileges afforded to every citizen under the United States Constitution," Trump said in a statement.

Trump has suggested during many rallies that people who invoke their right against self-incrimination are guilty. "You see, the mob takes the Fifth," Trump said during a 2016 rally in Iowa. "If you're innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?" The line was a jab at his opponent, Hillary Clinton, whose aides had invoked the Fifth in a congressional investigation.

While Trump usually refuses to acknowledge his very own hypocrisy, at this moment, he felt it was such an outright turnabout that it needed to be dealt with.

"Now I know the response to that concern. When your family members, your firm, and all the individuals in your orbit have come to be the targets of a misguided, politically determined ‘Witch Hunt’ sustained by legal representatives, district attorneys, and the Fake News Media, you have no choice," he said.

He added that the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach on Monday, unrelated to the civil investigation led by New York attorney general Letitia James, convinced him that numerous district attorneys "have shed all moral and ethical bounds of modesty."