Donald Trump is 'toast' in NY fraud trial, former Watergate prosecutor warns

A former prosecutor in the landmark Watergate investigation insisted former President Donald Trump is “toast” in the fraud trial he currently faces in New York.

Nick Akerman, a former assistant special Watergate prosecutor, argued that Trump’s decision to testify in the trial after invoking the Fifth Amendment over 400 times during depositions could be used against the real estate mogul.

"Basically at this point Donald Trump is toast,” Akerman, who conducted grand jury investigations during Watergate, said during an appearance on CNN. “He is basically going to be found to be a liar by the judge here.”

The lawsuit, brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, accuses Trump of falsely inflating his wealth by billions to lock in deals on loan terms and insurance. If found liable, the former president and other defendants could be on the line for $250 million in damages.

The judge, Arthur Engoron, has already ruled that Trump, his sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr., a pair of Trump executives and the umbrella Trump Organization committed years of fraud by overvaluing real estate for better terms on loans and insurance.

Because the trial is civil, rather than criminal, the judge may interpret Trump’s invocation of the Fifth Amendment as an admission of wrongdoing, Ackerman argued.

“What does it mean to take the Fifth Amendment? It means that you are refusing to answer a question, because a truthful answer would tend to be incriminating,” Ackerman said.

Part of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits being a witness against yourself, or being forced to self-incriminate. When Trump took the stand in the case earlier this week to defend himself from what he termed the "corporate death penalty,” the businessman denied allegations made by prosecutors in the case.

Combined with his Fifth Amendment pleas, those statements could be used to show that the president was lying under oath, Akerman argued.

“You can use his assertion of the 5th Amendment against him to basically find that he's lying, that's he's manipulating the system when he goes in and refuses to answer questions [or] answers questions in a half-baked manner," he said. "I just don't see how this judge at the end of the day is not going to find that with respect to Donald Trump, liar liar pants on fire."

Trump's team began making their defense in the case on Thursday.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Donald Trump is 'toast' in fraud trial, Watergate prosecutor says