"Taking the Fifth"

May 8, 2019  --  The Senate Intelligence Committee issued a subpoena to President Trump's eldest son. Trump Jr. received the subpoena to appear before the committee as a follow-up to his prior testimony as part of the Republican-led panel's ongoing Russia probe. Democrats have long suggested that Trump Jr. lied to congressional investigators about his actions and statements during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Donald Trump, Jr.

It has been suggested that Trump Jr. may ignore the subpoena. Or his other alternative may be to “plead the Fifth.”

His father has said “If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?”  He said this in reference to his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, when he used this option. Trump also said it during the 2016 campaign: “I think it is disgraceful” that Hillary Clinton’s employees took the Fifth.

The term taking the fifth means “the refusal to testify on the ground that the testimony might tend to incriminate the witness in a crime, based on the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, which provides that No person…shall be compelled to be a witness against himself, applied to state courts by the 14th Amendment.”