You have a right to invoke that right. But in so doing you are admitting that you have to hide some specific information or you will be in trouble for some reason. How is invoking the 5th not as bad as telling the truth?
Pleading the fifth - “The right to refuse to answer questions in order to avoid incriminating oneself”. The only people who plead the fifth are those who have done something wrong. One can only look guilty if they ARE guilty of something – even if it’s not the “exact” thing they’re being accused of doing.
A mother tells her kids “no cookies until after supper”. Less than an hour later, she hears a crash and finds a broken cookie jar on the kitchen floor. She assembles her children and asks, “Do any of you know anything about the broken cookie jar?” The youngest child, with cookie crumbs and smear of chocolate around his mouth, replies, “I plead the fifth”. Now the child may or may not have broken the jar. Perhaps his sister was the one who actually broke it. If that were the case, then, technically, he didn’t break the jar. However, he did eat cookies (did wrong). Does not breaking the jar justify his eating the cookies? After all, his mom didn’t ask if anyone ate the cookies, she only asked about the broken jar.
Do people who plead the fifth really think they’re getting away with something? Do they really think people are so stupid that they don’t know what happened? If you did something wrong, be a man (or woman) and fess up to it! Sure you might get punished, but you’ll come out better in the long run than if you tell a “technicality lie” to try to get away with (cover up) something else.
Shuhak 