[Gay State Conservative]

He can only plead the Fifth if testifying will incriminate him.

Not only am I not a Constitutional scholar,I'm not even a lawyer.However,I think that a person can take the 5th when he fears prosecution even if that fear is unfounded in law.However,if offered immunity from prosecution (which I suspect Congress has the authority to do) he *could* be compelled to testify.Below is the relevant portion of the Amendment.

..nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself..

Fairly vague IMO...which,if I'm correct,would give a potential accused wide latitude in deciding when he/she could be charged with a crime.

[Alberta's Child]

Good research there, GSC. U.S. courts have been very broad in their interpretation of the protections afforded under the Fifth Amendment.

Oliver North had all of his criminal convictions in the Iran Contra case tossed out for this very reason. The judge in his appeal was pretty harsh in making his decision, too. He didn't just overturn the convictions in a way that may have enabled the prosecution to pursue the case without using the protected testimony, either. The prosecution didn't have that option because the judge didn't really "overturn" the convictions ... he ruled that North never should have been indicted in the first place.