Does a court's adverse inference instruction regarding privilege affect a witness's ability to respond to the allegation of unethical conduct?

We have addressed whether a party-witness suffers prejudice from a court's adverse inference instruction regarding the privilege. In Woods v. START Treatment & Recovery Centers, Inc ., we held that the party suffered "acute prejudice" where the jury instructions included language permitting the jury to infer that, but for the assertion of the privilege, the party would have answered "yes" when asked whether she had been accused of unethical conduct. See 864 F.3d 158, 170-71 (2d Cir. 2017). In Woods , the district court's instruction effectively directed the jury to adopt the negative inference. Noting the questionable probative value of the adverse inferences there, we held that admission of the invocations and the instruction were improper.⁵