AP News, March 28th, 2007
Examples of congressional witnesses invoking Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination:
_Former Hewlett Packard general counsel Ann Baskins refused to testify in September 2006 during a congressional probe into the company's spying scandal.
_Lobbyist Jack Abramoff and public relations consultant Michael Scanlon declined to answer questions in 2004 during Senate committee hearings into fees paid to them by several tribes.
_Richard Scrushy, former chairman and CEO of HealthSouth, refused to answer questions for a committee investigating fraud allegations at the company in 2003. Susan Jones-Smith, a former HealthSouth senior vice president for finance, also invoked her constitutional right to avoid testimony.
_Craig Rosebraugh, the spokesman for the Earth Liberation Front, invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to answer questions at a committee hearing in 2002.
_William Bulger, once president of the Massachusetts state senate, refused to tell a congressional committee in 2002 whether he'd been in contact with his brother, fugitive mobster James "Whitey" Bulger, or knew of his whereabouts.
_Former Enron chief executive Ken Lay and chief financial officer Andrew Fastow refused to testify before a congressional committee in 2002.
_Denise Rich, the ex-wife of pardoned financier Marc Rich, declined to appear before a House committee in 2001 during an investigation of the pardons issued by President Clinton just before he left office.
_Michael O'Neil, former general counsel for the Central Intelligence Agency, invoked the Fifth Amendment at a Senate hearing in 2000 about computer security lapses by former CIA Director John Deutch.
_Webster Hubbell, a Clinton administration Justice Department official, invoked the Fifth Amendment in 1997 after a congressional committee asked for documents about payments he received from Clinton allies when he was under criminal investigation in 1994.
