Senate Intel leaders: Door open to holding Flynn in contempt after invoking Fifth Amendment

[Eugene]

Source: CNN

Senate Intel leaders: Door open to holding Flynn in contempt after invoking Fifth Amendment

By Manu Raju and Jeremy Herb, CNN
Updated 0134 GMT (0934 HKT) May 23, 2017

(CNN) - The top two leaders of the Senate intelligence committee are leaving the door open to holding Michael Flynn in contempt of Congress after President Trump's former national security adviser said he would invoke his Fifth Amendment rights rather than comply with a subpoena.

Sen. Richard Burr, the chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, said the panel was reviewing a range of options to compel Flynn to disclose records about his meetings with Russian officials, including holding Flynn in contempt. And he said the panel "could" call for Flynn to assert his right against self-incrimination in a public session.

"It does us no good in having people pleading the Fifth if we are trying to get information," Burr said. He added: "The only thing I can tell you is immunity is off the table."

Unlike Flynn, two other former Trump campaign officials have turned over documents to the committee related to its investigation of Russian meddling in the US election.

"The subpoena seeks to compel (Flynn) to offer testimony through the act of producing documents that may or may not exist. In these circumstances, (Flynn) is entitled to, and does, invoke his Fifth Amendment privilege against production of documents," Flynn's lawyer wrote in a letter to the committee, verified by CNN.

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Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2017/05/22/politics/michael-flynn-pleads-fifth/index.html

[Calista241]

1. Trump will just pardon or commute his sentence.

[JoeStuckInOH]

2. I thought that, even under subpeona, if you believe the answers to any Q's may

lead to self-incrimination... that you maintain your 5th amendment rights. Did Flynn simply IGNORE the subpoena or simply state that, if subpoenaed he INTENDS to invoke his 5th amendment rights. Because the the former action would be contempt and the latter would appear to be within his rights.

See here:
https://www.avvo.com/legal-answers/can-i-plead-the-fifth-if-i-am-subpoenaed-to-testif-885925.html

"If you have been subpoenaed, you still must appear even if you plan to 'take the 5th.' Taking the 5th" means choosing to exercise your Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. That means if your statements would tend to incriminate yourself, you can invoke this right. However, if you simply "have nothing to do with it," this is not grounds to invoke the 5th amendment. Even if you are scared to testify because of what someone else might do, or you just don't care, or you don't think you know anything, etc. those are not situations where you can "take the 5th."

[former9thward]

3. His documents were subpoenaed. Not him.

The documents he may or may not have and they may or may not be his. That is the legal issue. Ordinarily documents can be subpoenaed. But there is a legal exception. If producing documents will tell the government you have them or that you created them and that fact can lead to criminal jeopardy then you don't have to produce.

The facts of this case would be a good question in a law school final.