Key witness against Roger Stone pleads the Fifth – and it may not be what it seems
Roger Stone’s former friend and current nemesis Randy Credico has announced that he’s invoking the Fifth Amendment in order to avoid having to immediately cooperate with the Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation into the Trump-Russia scandal. This is a rather curious development, considering that Credico recently showed up and provided hours of testimony to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia grand jury. So what’s going on here?
First, it’s important to point out that invoking the Fifth Amendment is not legally considered an indicator of guilt. For instance, if you’re innocent but you fear you’re going to be framed, you might plead the Fifth in order to avoid having to facilitate what you consider to be a frame job against you. But Randy Credico isn’t even known to be facing any criminal liability in the scandal. And considering Randy Credico just finished testifying about Roger Stone and Trump-Russia to a grand jury, his refusal to testify before the Senate would seem to be about something else.
So let’s stop and ask why Credico would be willing to testify for Robert Mueller but not for the Senate Intel Committee. If we were talking about the Trump-controlled House Intel Committee, which has been actively trying to protect Trump’s allies and destroy everyone else, Credico’s reasons for avoiding it would be obvious. But by all accounts, the Senate Intel Committee is closely aligned with Mueller and has been working with him all along. So what gives?
The last time we saw a Trump-Russia witness plead the Fifth in order to avoid testifying before the Senate Intel Committee, he ended up cutting a plea deal with Robert Mueller a few months later. But unlike Flynn, Randy Credico is already cooperating with Mueller with his grand jury testimony. And again, unlike Flynn, there is no reason to expect that Credico is in danger of facing criminal charges.
That said, Robert Mueller is on the verge of indicting and arresting Roger Stone, and the last thing Mueller would want is one of his key grand jury witnesses blabbing about the case to the Senate right now. Considering the timing, you have to wonder if Randy Credico has decided – perhaps even at the urging of Mueller – to simply stall the Senate for the sake of protecting the impending indictment. The bottom line is that there is something unusual going on here, but only Credico knows why he’s chosen to cooperate with Mueller while blowing off the Senate.
