Official plans to invoke Fifth Amendment privilege in response to Fast and Furious subpoena

[beevul]

Official plans to invoke Fifth Amendment privilege in response to Fast and Furious subpoena

By: Lori Jane Gliha


Patrick Cunningham, who serves as the Chief of the Criminal Division, received a subpoena to appear in front of the committee, to answer questions about his role in the controversial ATF Fast and Furious case.

According to a letter addressed to Issa and signed by Cunningham’s attorney, Tobin Romero, Cunningham will be exercising his “constitutional privilege not to be compelled to be a witness against himself.”

Romero continued, “my client is, in fact, innocent, but he has been ensnared by the unfortunate circumstances in which he now stands between two branches of government. I will therefore be instructing him to assert his constitutional privilege.”


-snip-


“The former head of the ATF has previously told the committee that the Justice Department is managing its response to Operation Fast and Furious in a manner designed to protect its political appointees. This is the first time anyone has asserted their Fifth Amendment right in this investigation and heightens concerns that Justice Department’s motivation for refusing to hand over subpoenaed materials is a desire to shield responsible officials from criminal charges and other embarrassment.”

http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/local_news/investigations/Official-plans-to-invoke-Fifth-Amendment-privilege-in-response-to-Fast-and-Furious-subpoena

Anyone want to continue pushing the "botched sting" meme in the face of this news?

[The Straight Story]

1. He is doing the right thing

and his attorney gave sound advice.

Not arguing about the whole larger issue here- but think of it this way, you hop into a thread in HM here and post something and next thing you know you are accused of a ton of other things.

What would you advise your client to do?

[burf]

16. Maybe you are right.

Afterall Cunningham was the chief of the criminal division. Seems as though he may have been the right man in the right job. What's that old line about "if you have nothing to hide"? Its ok for the government to wiretap your phone and using the argument, but one of our "betters" is on the hook, the Constitution becomes awfully important again.

[E6-B]

2. Someone lied 300 Mexican citizens and a US LEO died.

[ileus]

3. If only they had their AWB ban this wouldn't have had to happen.

[burf]

4. But I thought they

had strict gun control laws in Mexico.

[E6-B]

5. They also need bigger stickers on doors that say 'guns not allowed'.

It is all about stickers. If you just have the right stickers people feel safe and the cycle of violence stops.

[burf]

6. Great idea!

They could put signs and a big banner up at all crossing points and that would take care of all the gun related violence in Mexico.

And they all lived happily ever after.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

9. They do.

It's illegal to bring guns into Mexico. That means that only criminals do that. Mexico is one great big gun-free zone. If it wasn't for the US, there would be no guns or gun crime at all in Mexico.

[burf]

7. The safeguards in the 5th Amendment are a right, not a privilege

Privileges may be revoked, rights not so. Say burf gets arrested. He is taken into custody and is interrogated and decides he doesn't want to talk to the interrogator and invokes his 5th Amendment "privilege". The interrogator is not in the mood to waste a bunch of time with burf and his "privilege" nonsense. He tells burf that his privilege was only good on Mondays and this being Saturday, he was gonna answer all questions or get the snot knocked out of him.

What happens to gun ownership when the 2nd Amendment becomes a privilege?

[safeinOhio]

10. I thought you had

"the right to remain silent".

As for using Mexico as an example of gun laws, they have no enforcement, in fact most cops are as, if not more, crooked than the crooks. Try using a country with strict enforcement of gun laws.
Lets use Switzerland. Lots of guns, even full autos, with strict laws that are enforced. They have fewer gun murders in the whole country than Toledo Ohio does per year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_politics_in_Switzerland


Gun violence and Crime in Switzerland
Police statistics for the year 2006[14] records 34 killings or attempted killings involving firearms, compared to 69 cases involving bladed weapons and 16 cases of unarmed assault. Cases of assault resulting in bodily harm numbered 89 (firearms) and 526 (bladed weapons). As of 2007, Switzerland had a population of about 7,600,000. This would put the rate of killings or attempted killings with firearms at about one for every quarter million residents yearly. This represents a decline of aggravated assaults involving firearms since the early 1990s. The majority of gun crimes involving domestic violence are perpetrated with army ordnance weapons, while the majority of gun crime outside the domestic sphere involves illegally held firearms.[15]

[E6-B]

11. Won't work in the USA.

Not a chance of working in the USA. The gun control advocates will never allow me to own a free government paid machinegun and ammo. They would be too affraid of me 'doing something'.

[Hoyt]

15. Not if you can only play with it at home.

[burf]

12. Yes, I do have the "right" to remain silent,

but if this right turns into a privilege, it is then at the discretion of the privilege giving authority to allow me to exercise that privilege.

I haven't been to Switzerland in over 30 years. When I did visit, IIRC, the policy at the time was everyone had guns as they were part of the armed forces. Hey, it worked for them, lets give it a shot.

Or, maybe there is something else to the problem of guns being used in crimes.

[safeinOhio]

13. Yup, I'd give it a try.

They actually have a well regulated militia. Other than hunting and target long guns, all others are well regulated and registered. Laws there require them to be securely locked under lock and key while in the house.

[gejohnston]

14. so are privately owned machine guns

here.
Until you leave the militia, they are property of the Swiss Govt.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

8. How lax and stupid...

...is the conduct of the war on drugs. The Mexico based drug cartels were armed with the cooperation of the ATF and using those arms in fact killed a US Border Patrol Agent. How is it okay with American tax payers to finance for going on 40 years, an initiative which is so disjointed and uncoordinated as to have one federal agency, in its targeting of a foreign cartel, aid that same cartel in the murder of a federal agent and many foreign civilians?

Had this abortion of a policy been conducted by the military, those acting in the ATF's role would be subject to prosecution under article 104 of the UCMJ.

I infer from the invoking of the Fifth Amendment that someone, somewhere broke the law. It's time to start pursuing those who aren't cooperating with obstruction warrants. It's time to actually chamber a round, so to speak. As far as I know racketeering convictions are limited to those who actually profit from illegal activities but cooperation in a cover-up is conspiracy. If such activity took place within the your office and your office is one of public trust you better be damn-well prepared to defend your actions with tangible evidence.

Once the wheels of justice actually crush a few of these clowns, the rest will be like rats off a sinking ship. It's time to get the justice train out of first gear.