Free Republic

Suffice to say it’s not a good look when lawyers representing the FBI are telling the central witness within a political conspiracy involving the FBI not to answer questions from congressional oversight. House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte tells Martha MacCallum that FBI lawyers are instructing FBI Agent Peter Strzok not to answer questions from congress about the nature of his involvement within a DOJ/FBI conspiracy to stop a political candidate; and later to overthrow a presidency. Additionally Chairman Goodlatte states the answers agent Strzok did give about his text messages was “not believable”.

Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, will invoke his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination in a California defamation suit by Stormy Daniels, according to a court filing late Wednesday. In the filing, Cohen said he's pleading the Fifth due to the ongoing criminal investigation against him by federal authorities.

David Kramer, an associate of Senator John McCain, invoked his Fifth Amendment right to not testify to Congress in connection to his role in distribution of the fake Russia dossier to the FBI. Kramer was briefed by the Russian dossier author Christopher Steele in London in 2016. Kramer then returned back to the US and delivered the phony dossier to John McCain. McCain handed the document over to the FBI.

A former State Department official and associate of Sen. John McCain has invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to testify in connection with questions from the House Intelligence Committee about the anti-Trump dossier’s Russian sources, according to a law enforcement source. David J. Kramer, who is a central player in how the unverified Trump dossier made its way to the FBI in late 2016, testified before the committee in December in a closed-door session, indicating he had information about the dossier's sources. A subpoena was issued for mid-January, as first reported by The Washington Examiner. The law enforcement source confirmed,...

Two senior officials from the Department of Veterans Affairs have pleaded the Fifth Amendment in front of a House Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing on relocation bonus corruption. Philadelphia and Wilmington VA regional offices director Diana Rubens and St. Paul VA regional office director Kimberly Graves pleaded the Fifth and refused to answer any of the numerous questions put forward by HVAC chairman GOP Rep. Jeff Miller. “Sir, I’ve been advised by counsel not to answer that question to protect my rights under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution,” Rubens repeated multiple times. The five employees from the VA involved in...

Two Senate committee chairmen authored a letter to a former Hillary Clinton aide pushing him to accept limited immunity in order to testify before Congress on the set-up of the former secretary of state’s private server.First reported by McClatchy, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Ron Johnson (R., Wis.), who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Committee, sent the letter to ex-State Department computer staffer Brian Pagliano and his lawyer Friday emphasizing the possibility of an “immunity order.”In response to a subpoena from the House Select Committee on Benghazi, Pagliano’s attorney Mark MacDougall told...

Hillary Clinton aide Bryan Pagliano’s attorney said last week that his client would not cooperate with the FBI and would exercise his Fifth Amendment rights. What does he have to hide?In fact, he may have already hidden information that will get him into a pile of legal trouble if he admits it.It was revealed today by the Washington Post that Pagliano was paid to run Hillary’s private server — out of Hillary Clinton’s own pocket. She paid Pagliano an initial sum of $5,000 to set up the server. Pagliano dutifully reported the sum on his financial disclosure form in...

The IT specialist who set up Hillary Clinton's controversial private email was paid with taxpayer dollars after he helped the former Secretary of State skirt the law. And Bryan Pagliano is finding his own words could be coming back to bite him. 'Some things that look like good ideas…may actually have bad consequences,' he told an IT webinar last year. Pagliano, 39, was taken on by the State Department when Clinton was appointed the nation's top diplomat in 2009. He had previously worked for her presidential campaign. Now the married father of two, says he will plead the Fifth Amendment...

A former aide to Hillary Rodham Clinton who helped set up the server that housed Mrs. Clinton’s private email account plans to invoke his Fifth Amendment rights in response to congressional questions about the email practices, according to two people briefed on the matter. The former aide, Bryan Pagliano, was subpoenaed to testify before the House committee investigating the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya. But a lawyer for Mr. Pagliano, Mark MacDougall, has told the committee that Mr. Pagliano will decline to answer their questions and assert his Fifth Amendment privilege. ​Mr. ​Pagliano was the information technology director for Mrs....

The Washington Post reported Wednesday night that a former Hillary Clinton State Department staffer who reportedly set up her home brew server will invoke his Fifth Amendment rights and refuse to testify to Congressional committees investigating Clinton’s home email system. Bryan Pagliano, though his attorney, informed the House Benghazi Select Committee which had subpoenaed him to testify on September 10, that he was declining to testify. The Post reported the letter cited the FBI investigation in to Clinton’s email system. Senate committees seeking Pagliano’s testimony were also informed he would be taking the Fifth. ““While we understand that Mr. Pagliano’s...

A former aide to Hillary Clinton who helped set up her private email server has told at least three congressional committees that he will invoke the Fifth Amendment to avoid testifying against his former boss, Fox News has confirmed. Bryan Pagliano, who worked on Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign before helping install the so-called "homebrew" server system in her Chappaqua, N.Y. home, was asked to testify about the server by the House Select Committee on Benghazi, the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

Former IRS official Lois Lerner invoked her Fifth Amendment right Wednesday not to incriminate herself when she testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on the IRS targeting of tea party groups. Oddly, the news media and Democratic leaders don't think it's a big deal when a federal official -- Lerner was the head of the unit that deals with tax-exempt organizations when she first invoked the Fifth last May -- won't answer questions about her actions as a federal official, but they are in a huff because the committee's chairman, Darrell Issa, abruptly called an end...

The former senior EPA adviser who stole $900,000 from taxpayers while posing as a CIA agent pleaded the Fifth on Tuesday morning — shortly before House members expressed outrage upon learning that he’s still due to get his government pension. John C. Beale invoked his right not to incriminate himself when facing questioning from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, just four days after he pleaded guilty to charges that could bring him three years in prison.“Mr. Beale, do you have a statement?” panel Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) asked during the hearing. “Thank you, Mr. Chairman. No I do...

Tuesday afternoon a bombshell was dropped into the already explosive IRS scandal when it was reported that Lois Lerner, a top IRS official in the non-profit division that paralyzed Tea Party groups with ongoing harassment, would invoke the Fifth Amendment and refuse to answer questions during Congressional testimony schedule before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday. The LA Times reports that Lerner will refuse to answer any questions about what she knows about the targeting of conservative groups. She will also refuse to explain why she is refusing to answer questions. Lerner has retained defense attorney William W. Taylor 3rd,...

Another day, another killer RNC video needling the Obama administration.  This time, they're taunting members of the executive branch for repeatedly declining to incriminate themselves during sworn Congressional testimony. A doff of the cap to whomever thought of framing the clip around the question of identifying Obama's "favorite" constitutional amendment.  Not only is it cheeky within this context, it also calls to mind the president's recent legal struggles, attempted demagoguery of the Supreme Court, and subsequent feeble spin.  Virtuosic:   "Obama's Favorite Amendment"How perfect that the latest CYA "no comments" come just as the Obama machine begins its dopey "what's...