Plead 5th before Senate panel

Roger Stone associate to plead 5th before Senate panel

By DARREN SAMUELSOHN

A liberal talk show host described as an intermediary between Trump confidant Roger Stone and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange told Senate Russia investigators on Monday that he’s planning to plead the Fifth Amendment in response to its subpoena for testimony and documents.

Randy Credico, a Bernie Sanders-supporting activist and comedian, told the Senate Intelligence Committee through his lawyer that he’d invoke his constitutional right against possible self-incrimination rather than answer the panel’s questions in the ongoing investigation into Russian influence on the 2016 presidential election.

“Should the committee require a personal appearance by Mr. Credico to orally assert his rights, please let us know,” his attorney, Martin Stolar, wrote the panel ahead of his client's scheduled appearance on Friday.

Credico spent more than two hours last month testifying before a grand jury run by special counsel Robert Mueller as part of its investigation into the Democratic emails stolen by Russian hackers that were released during the height of the 2016 presidential campaign to assist Donald Trump.

Stone, a longtime Trump adviser, has said Credico was his intermediary to Assange and WikiLeaks. The longtime Republican operative and self-described dirty trickster appeared to predict the WikiLeaks document dumps during the 2016 campaign, though he has also denied having any advance knowledge about the stolen emails.

Credico, who was permitted to bring his miniature therapy dog Bianca into the Mueller grand jury room, described that experience to reporters afterward “like sitting on an electric chair for a couple of hours.”

But Credico is less inclined to meet with congressional investigators conducting their own Russia investigations. He reportedly asserted his Fifth Amendment rights last December after getting a subpoena from the House Intelligence Committee, and his lawyer delivered the same response Monday after getting a similar request from the Senate Intelligence panel.

GOP and Democratic spokespeople on the Senate Intelligence Committee declined comment on the letter from Credico’s lawyer.

The committee’s bipartisan investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 presidential election has included interviews with more than 100 witnesses. But ranking member Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) told CBS News last month that the panel would still be “hard pressed” to finish before the November midterms its final report on Moscow’s influence efforts and any connections to the Trump campaign.