[Badeye]

"She certainly can. There are consequences of doing so in a civil case that are not present in a criminal case, but she does not lose her Fifth Amendment rights when she walks through the civil courtroom doors.

Ask OJ Simpson....sorry, she can't plead the Fifth in a Civil Court Trial. She can cause the court to find her "In Contempt"....but that doesn't change the fact she can't plead the Fifth.

Perhaps NYC has laws on this topic the rest of the nation isn't aware of.......

[BikerNYC]

She can invoke the Fifth Amendment. No question about it. There is still the potential of an insider trading case that could be brought against her and she could invoke her Right in any context because of it.

But there would be consequences of doing so in a civil courtroom. One consequence would be that the judge would tell the jury that they could infer that anything Martha would have testified to would completely contradict her position at the trial. That "negative inference" is devastating and is the reason most people in her position choose to testify in civil trials. But, she would still have the right to invoke, if she wanted to and risk losing the civil trial.