Via Hot Air:
Solyndra execs will decline to testify at hearing
Solyndra LLC’s chief executive and chief financial officer will invoke their Fifth Amendment rights and decline to answer any questions put to them at a Congressional hearing on Friday, according to letters from their attorneys obtained by Reuters.
In the letters sent to the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, attorneys for Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison and CFO W. G. Stover said they advised their clients not to provide testimony during the hearings.
Legally speaking, asserting your Fifth Amendment privilege proves nothing. In reality, people who take the Fifth look guilty as hell. That’s why the prosecution can’t tell the jury that a defendant invoked.
I always tell people the only thing they should say to cops is “I don’t want to say anything. I want a lawyer.”
Silence is golden – in this case for the Republicans.
The Crawdad Hole 
Beat me to it. The Solyndra execs should just appear in orange jumpsuits and complete the effect đŸ™‚
Yeah, this makes the whole thing look really, really bad.
I think that were it a criminal trial the damage would be less ( even though significant), because most people to some degree can understand not wanting to give ammunition to the prosecution, even if one is innocent. Pleading the fifth might hurt you, but at least some will understand why you might do it.
But this isn’t a criminal trial – it’s a hearing by the US Congress. They are asking questions about our own government’s involvement with Solyndra.
This is going to be seen not as a prudent move by a criminal defendant to protect himself, but as blatant stonewalling to keep the public from learning the truth about the actions of our own government.
Lying to Congress is a crime.
Yes, I know. I’m just examining how I predict the optics will play out to the average joe. The feeling will not be the same as it would be for a criminal trial – this is our govt and our tax dollars. People will view this differently than they would someone accused of crime taking the 5th..
You might be right but with the 12% approval rating of Congress, I wouldn’t be sure.
If the GOPers are smart they won’t make speeches they’ll just ask questions and let the execs keep asserting privilege.
As long as they don’t grant them immunity.
But who are they really protecting by pleading the 5th?? It could mean they did something wrong themselves or it could mean they are protecting people in this administration who pulled strings for them.
It’s not a crime to get a loan from the Gov and to go bankrupt, so this investigation isn’t really about them. So who told them they couldn’t talk and why?
Bribery and “creative accounting” could be crimes though.
Half a billion is a LOT of money. What the heck did they blow it on?
I’m not saying that the CEO is being investigated for no reason, but being investigated is not necessarily reason to believe the person has done something wrong. That’s what the investigation should find out. And when one is being investigated, especially if one is innocent, is best not to say anything. I don’t see taking the Fifth as an admission of guilt. I know I’d shut up completely if there’s any hint that I’m being investigated or might be investigated.
HONK!
Kathryn Ruemmler is the current WH Legal Counsel. She was apparently on the legal team that brought down Enron.