Trump DOJ official to plead the 5th -- and Capitol riot committee will 'hang it around his neck': CNN analyst
CNN legal analyst Elie Honig on Wednesday told CNN's Erin Burnett that the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th Capitol riots was about to make things very uncomfortable for former Trump DOJ official Jeffrey Clark.
Even though the committee voted to move forward with criminal contempt charges against Clark on Wednesday, the former Trump official is nonetheless slated to appear before the committee soon, where he is expected to assert his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.
Burnett pointed out that "it's going to sound damning" if Clark pleads the Fifth on every question at the hearing, and Honig replied that this is exactly why the Capitol riot committee wants to make him do it.
"The committee wants to make Jeffrey Clark own it," he explained. "They want to hang that Fifth Amendment [response] around his neck. Make him say it over and over, 'I take the Fifth, I take the Fifth, I take the Fifth.'"
READ MORE: Capitol riot committee votes to hold former Trump DOJ official in criminal contempt
Honig went on to explain that Clark is well within his rights to assert his Fifth Amendment rights -- but only if he believes that speaking truthfully could implicate him in a crime.
Burnett then played a supercut of all the times former President Donald Trump attacked aides of one-time Democratic rival Hillary Clinton for asserting their Fifth Amendment rights.
Watch the video below.
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