And I don’t mean a nice bottle of Scotch – from Reuters:
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.
The bankrupt company’s $535 million federal loan guarantee is being investigated by the House Energy and Commerce Committee…
Which means, of course, that someone broke the law somewhere along the line…if you are honest as the day is long and have nothing to be ashamed of (or are of sufficient moral courage to admit to error, regardless of consequences), then you don’t take the 5th. I know it is one of our bedrock rights…there is nothing wrong with refusing to answer as it might incriminate yourself. But if you don’t answer, it means there is something incriminating going on. Period. End of story.
Likely they are keeping their mouths shut as their lawyers try to figure out whether any of them can get jail time for what happened…and their lawyers will likely demand some sort of immunity grant before they openly testify. We can’t give it to them…they might take it and then just lie about what they know. And we need to know what happened – only the threat of jail time will really get them to talk. And if the genuinely turn State’s evidence, then we can consider being lenient…but nothing until we know for sure whatever they end up saying is completely factual.
What we need to know is just how the loan was made – who asked whom and why was it approved. If there is criminal liability, then we need to ensure that everyone who made the decision sees the inside of a jail…and ultimately we need to know what the President knew, and when he knew it. Maybe Obama is completely clear of this and it was rogue subordinates…but only a full investigation with complete White House cooperation can show that.
Blogs For Victory 
“if you are honest as the day is long and have nothing to be ashamed of (or are of sufficient moral courage to admit to error, regardless of consequences), then you don’t take the 5th.”- Mark
Headline from the past “Poindexter, North, Secord Take the 5th in Iran Probes : Resentment and Mystery Increasing”
Let’s hope the Solnydra criminals get put behind bars quickly because the mess in Iran only got worse in time.
bardolf,
That is because Poindexter and North both screwed up…but, also, screwed up in a much better cause than the people involved in Solyndra. Remember what Iran/Contra was about: fighting communists in Central America and freeing American hostages in Lebanon. Solyndra was merely about rewarding campaign donors.
I would disagree with the logic that you don’t take the fifth if you have nothing to hide. Time and time again, congressional hearings and the like are used to get testimony under oath on record. It seems that historically, it doesn’t matter what they say about the underlying actions, the only crime that seems to every be prosecuted for those who testify before congress is something akin to perjury. If they were to say they recieved an email on a tuesday, then it was found out that it was a wednesday, you can bet they would be prosecuted for perjury if that ended up being the only thing they could get them on.
If congress wants to interrogate people to get information on what went wrong, then grant them immunity from the statements that they make…..otherwise, the hearing is really a gotcha grand jury type inquisition, rather than what the committee leaders say it really is. If the hearing is for gathering information, then use it for gathering information, don’t use it for the prosecution of those who they seek the information from.
depends what IS is.