Former special counsel Jack Smith did not invoke his Fifth Amendment rights during eight hours of testimony Wednesday behind closed doors to the House Judiciary Committee, the panel’s chairman said.
“He did not take the Fifth like some of his deputies did,” Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican, said on Fox News on Thursday.
Smith defended both of his investigations into Donald Trump, telling members that he charged Trump regardless of his political party affiliation. Smith and his attorneys have previously said that he wanted the opportunity to correct mischaracterizations about his investigations.
This is a bad way to think about people exercising their rights.
Taking the fifth doesn’t mean you have something to hide. It simply means that you don’t know if it could possibly incriminate you.
I strongly suggest everybody in America watch this video which is mostly about not talking to police, but the same reasons apply to testimony.
For example, sometimes even completely innocent seeming statements, such as your truthfully saying where you were, can be used to convict you of a crime that you didn’t commit. You had “nothing to hide”, but you should have exercised your rights anyways.
Since you don’t know ahead of time which statements may be incriminating, you have to be extremely prepared if you want to guarantee that you don’t need to take the fifth in front of a place like the House Judiciary Committee, where you are answering questions from politicians who have agendas.
Yeah, the reason I referenced the ‘nothing to hide’ thing was because he’s a lawman, and that’s a lawman saying.
I agree with you.