Any lawyers care to weigh in on Stepian using the Fifth Amendment on a document subpoena?

[Gothmog]

28. As predicted, the NJ committee is seeking to enforce subpoenas

The next step in the process is to seek to enforce the subpoenas on the grounds that the legal objections are not valid http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/nj-bridge-committee-subpoena-objections-invalid

According to comments made by some of the members once they returned to open session, special counsel Reid Schar briefed the members on the constitutionality of Kelly and Stepien's objections during the closed session.

Once they returned to open session, the committee approved three motions related to Kelly's objection. The first declared the "books, papers, correspondence, and other documents and materials" requested from Kelly to be "necessary" to the investigation. The second motion deemed her objection "invalid. Finally, the third motion compelled the production of the materials requested from Kelly "on a day to be determined by special counsel." All three motions were approved, with the four Republicans on the committee abstaining and the eight Democrats voting yes.

After the motions on Kelly, the committee voted on identical motions concerning the subpoena sent to Stepien. Those three motions were also approved with the four committee Republican committee members abstaining.

For the reasons stated on this thread, I think that the Committee should win these motions and force production. The Act of Production and the Testimony by Production concepts do not apply when the government knows about the existence of the documents in question. In this case, we know that the witnesses used e-mails from private accounts and that these e-mails covered material relevant to the investigation. There will be a court fight but I think that Kelly and Septien will lose this fight.