Trump 'Boxed In' After N.Y. Judge's Ruling He Must Testify: Legal Experts

Legal experts say Donald Trump is running out of options after a judge ruled on Thursday that the former president and two of his adult children—Ivanka and Donald Jr.—must answer questions under oath as part of New York Attorney General Letitia James' investigation into his business practices.

Trump's attorney attempted to argue that Trump was part of a "protected class" and that James' probe was politically motivated. But Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron flatly rejected that argument and ruled that Trump and his children must comply with James' subpoenas to testify. Although Trump is planning to appeal the ruling, the former president no longer has good options to push back against the investigation, according to legal experts.

In his decision, Engoron, a Democrat, wrote, "In the final analysis, a State Attorney General commences investigating a business entity, uncovers copious evidence of possible financial fraud, and wants to question, under oath, several of the entities' principals, including its namesake. She has the clear right to do so."

While Trump and his children may plead the Fifth Amendment, this could ultimately backfire, according to a state attorney in Florida.

"If he takes the Fifth Amendment it can be used against him in a civil trial. That's why it's so dangerous here, because the Fifth Amendment protects you against self-incrimination, but you can have a negative inference against you at a civil trial. And this is a civil matter," Dave Aronberg, the state attorney for Palm Beach County, told MSNBC on Friday.

"I think he doesn't have any good options. If he doesn't take the Fifth...what he says can be used against him in the parallel criminal investigation going on in Manhattan. That's why he sought door number three, which was to stop everything, but it was never going to work here," Aronberg explained.

"He is boxed in. Either he takes the Fifth, he doesn't or he commits perjury, and that would be a crime as well," he continued. "Which is why I always thought Trump's greatest legal threat comes not from the Department of Justice but from state prosecutors in the Empire State [New York]."

Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti made the same point in a Thursday Twitter post after the judge's ruling came down.

"If Trump takes the Fifth, it can be used against him in the civil case being developed by the New York Attorney General," Mariotti wrote. "If Trump doesn't take the Fifth, the Manhattan DA can use his words against him. He's between a rock and a hard place."

The former federal prosecutor explained that the Trumps "argued that James was seeking civil discovery to help build a criminal case, but they denied that they were targets of a criminal investigation at this time. Typically, defendants in this situation would try to make it seem like an indictment was almost certain."

He pointed out that the Trumps "didn't do that." Mariotti suggested they could change their argument on appeal, however. "But I doubt they will, given what we've seen so far," he added.

Laurence Tribe, a professor of constitutional law at Harvard, suggested that the Trumps would have difficulty getting out of testifying after the New York judge's ruling.

"Watch the Three Trumpketeers try to wiggle out of this order!" Tribe tweeted. "Civil contempt would land them in jail, with cooperation being their only key to get out of those ugly orange prison suits—not the Trump idea of high fashion."

Trump released a Thursday statement insisting that he was being targeted by Democrats through the New York probe.

"The targeting of a President of the United States, who got more votes while in office than any President in History, by far, and is a person that the Radical Left Democrats don't want to run again, represents an unconstitutional attack on our Country—and the people will not allow this travesty of justice to happen," he said in the statement released by his spokesperson.

"It is a continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt in history—and remember, I can't get a fair hearing in New York because of the hatred of me by Judges and the judiciary. It is not possible!"

James cheered the judge's Thursday ruling. "No one will be permitted to stand in the way of the pursuit of justice, no matter how powerful they are," the attorney general tweeted.

Newsweek reached out to Trump's press office for comment but did not immediately receive a response.