Jan. 6 panel faces new test as first witness pleads the Fifth
By Rebecca Beitsch - 12/03/21 05:09 PM EST
ormer Trump Department of Justice official Jeffrey Clark’s plans to plead the Fifth to the House’s Jan. 6 committee could complicate DOJ’s willingness to prosecute him for contempt of Congress even as it further hints at potential criminal activity by President Trump and others in his orbit.
On the eve of the committee’s vote to censure Clark for failing to comply with their subpoena after largely refusing to answer their questions, a lawyer for Clark indicated he would like to exercise his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
It’s a remarkable development from a man who became a central player in Trump’s efforts to get DOJ to investigate his baseless claims of 2020 election fraud, including suggesting the department send a letter to Georgia and other states urging them to delay certification of the results.
"People sort of talk about the Fifth Amendment without stopping to think about what he is saying if he invokes the Fifth — that he won't answer a question because he's worried about criminal prosecution," Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) vice chair of the Jan. 6 committee, said Thursday.
"And if you think about that in the context of questions we're asking — which have to do with his discussions with President Trump about the election — and if he feels that he can't answer those questions about discussions with Donald Trump because he's worried that he could be facing criminal prosecution, the American people deserve to know that,” Cheney added.
The House Jan. 6 panel will convene a special Saturday deposition for Clark, where they stress he must assert the right on a question-by-question basis or risk a full House vote to censure him and refer him for prosecution by the very agency where he spent a large part of his career.
more
https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/584293-jan-6-panel-faces-new-test-as-first-witness-pleads-the-fifth
