‘The Easy Advice Here Is, Take the Fifth’: Elie Honig Reacts to Mark Meadows’ Grand Jury Testimony

Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Elie Honig said if he were advising former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on his grand jury testimony, he would say, “The easy advice here is, take the Fifth.”

The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution gives people the right to remain silent, lest they potentially incriminate themselves.

Honig discussed The New York Times report of Meadows’ grand jury testimony before Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is investigating Donald Trump on CNN’s The Lead With Jake Tapper.

“We don’t know whether he did this voluntarily because he’s a good citizen and cares about law and justice and the United States of America,” Jake Tapper said sarcastically, “or if he was worried that the DOJ maybe had something on him and, potentially, they could have pursued the contempt of Congress charges. And that’s what we know. There might have been other things.”

“Yeah, I think that’s exactly right,” Honig said. “Everyone has the right to take the Fifth. If I was advising Mark Meadows, even if he falls into a gray area, the easy advice here is, take the Fifth. Don’t risk incriminating yourself.

“Now, there’s a way to reach a deal for testimony in a situation like this, where Meadows, if I was representing Meadows, I would say, he’s willing to testify, DOJ, if you give him immunity. Meaning, he will testify, but you cannot use his testimony against him, and essentially that means you cannot prosecute him. Those type of deals are quite common. We don’t know whether that’s what happened here with Mark Meadows, but the fact that he testified, I think raises that question: Was there some sort of deal in place — and that doesn’t mean to suggest that there’s any sort of nefarious deal — but what was the agreement and what were the specific terms on which he testified here?”

The Times reported Tuesday that Meadows “is a figure in both of the two distinct lines of inquiry being pursued by the special counsel appointed to oversee the Justice Department’s scrutiny of Mr. Trump, Jack Smith.”

Those investigations include Trump’s potential liability in the Jan. 6 insurrection, and the inquiry into classified documents retrieved from Mar-a-Lago.

“It is not clear precisely when Mr. Meadows testified or if investigators questioned him about one or both of the cases,” The Times reported.

Watch the clip above via CNN.

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