WATCH: Congressman suggests Trump officials will take Fifth Amendment to avoid being hanged for treason
Advisors to Donald Trump who take the Fifth Amendment while testifying before the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol are doing so to evade a death sentence, a Democratic congressman suggested on Tuesday.
Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) made his comments as the House Rules Committee was considering a resolution to refer former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution for contempt of Congress.
Perlmutter began his comments by noting the oath of office that Donald Trump took at his 2017 inauguration.
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The career lawyer later cited the federal law for the offense of treason.
"18 USC 115, which is why I think that we're going to see the Fifth Amendment being played, 'whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levees war against them or adheres to their enemies giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere is guilty of treason and shall suffer death.' This is a death penalty statute! 'Or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000 and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States," he said.
"Just the memos that have been disclosed to this point, in my opinion, are treasonous. We danced around this a lot and we talk about obstructing Congress and things like that, but this was an effort to have a coup, to overthrow the country, to break the pledge of allegiance we make to this country and to the constitution," he explained.
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