Judiciary Report - Officials Pleading The Fifth

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OFFICIALS PLEADING THE FIFTH

March 27. 2007

When government officials plead the Fifth, should we rendition them and beat the truth out of them (joking).

Cartoon courtesy of Paul Conrad

In my March 21, 2007 article titled "Senate Hearings On FBI Misconduct Begin" I joked about people taking "the Fifth" (see Robert Mueller pic caption). Today it was announced that an Alberto Gonzales aide will be taking the Fifth.

How many of you are wondering just how many of them (officials) and their aides will plead the Fifth. Stay tuned.

“Gonzales Aide to Take Fifth About Prosecutor Firings"

March 26 (Bloomberg) -- An aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will invoke her constitutional right to refuse to testify before a Senate panel investigating the firings of eight U.S. attorneys, her lawyer told the committee.” - Bloomberg

Berto: None of this would have happened if we still communicated by pigeon like we used to do.

A pigeon wouldn't sing...but some birds do. Will White House Counsel Harriet Miers, whose name has come up in the scandal, be one of them:

White House Counsel Harriet Miers

"White House Counsel Harriet Miers and senior lawyers in the Justice Department when he told the committee last month of specific reasons why the administration fired seven U.S. attorneys — and appeared to acknowledge for the first time that politics was behind one dismissal. McNulty's testimony directly conflicted with the approach Miers advised, according to an unreleased internal White House e-mail described to ABC News. According to that e-mail, sources said, Miers said the administration should take the firm position that it would not comment on personnel issues.

Until McNulty's testimony, administration officials had consistently refused to publicly say why specific attorneys were dismissed and insisted that the White House had complete authority to replace them. That was Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' approach when he testified before the committee in January."