On 7/23/2025 6:20 AM, Rick wrote:
Recently a few members of the Biden administration were brought before a Congressional committee and questioned about President Biden's mental
fitness during his term in the context of his use of an auto-pen to sign executive actions and orders. Surprisingly (at least to me), at least
three witnesses refused to answer questions on Fifth Amendment grounds
of possible self-incrimination.
I'm guessing the Congressional investigators had no intention of
indicting these particular witnesses on charges, but were really just
trying to score political points by embarrassing the ex-president. So
why did they not just call the witnesses' bluff and grant them immunity
from prosecution to force their testimony? Wouldn't this have removed
their option to invoke the Fifth?
It depends. Some actions can be crimes in different jurisdictions. For
example, kidnapping is usually a state crime, but if the victim is
transported to another state, it becomes a federal crime as well.
Immunity granted by one of these will not protect you from prosecution
by the other.
I would normally assume that the kind of thing that would interest a Congressional committee would not be of interest to a state/local
jurisdiction, but "it ain't necessarily so."
--
I do so have a memory. It's backed up on DVD... somewhere...
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)