John Conyers: “The President is now being asked in this resolution that everyone who may have invoked the fifth amendment consider…”

“The President is now being asked in this resolution that everyone who may have invoked the fifth amendment consider abandoning it. Well, why? Well, because, as the Chairman of the Committee on Rules said, why are they hiding behind the fifth amendment? This is technical constitutional lawyer stuff, but the fifth amendment is for all people. The fifth amendment is not used for people to necessarily hide behind it and then have to explain why they invoke the fifth amendment. I do not think we did that when Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, during his crisis, invoked the fifth amendment. People use the fifth amendment who are totally innocent and have reasons for not wanting to bring forward information. So I do not think that the test of whether someone is telling the truth or not or is guilty or innocent can be arrived at by whether or not they invoke the fifth amendment. I hope everybody in the Congress will agree on this elementary point of constitutional understanding.”