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In more than four decades as a New York City dentist, Irving Peress pulled teeth and filled cavities in unremarkable obscurity.

But for a few months 60 years ago, he was the focus of national attention: exhibit A in Sen. Joseph R. McCarthys campaign to warn the nation of the communist threat to the American way of life and the extent to which it had already penetrated the countrys vital institutions.

Dr. Peress, who died Nov.13 at 97, was a primary target in McCarthys drive to ferret out the communist fifth column in the U.S. Army, into which the dentist had been drafted during the Korean War.

He was commissioned an officer in 1952 and signed an oath affirming that he had never been a member of an organization that sought to overthrow the government by unconstitutional means.

But he invoked his Fifth Amendment right to protection against self-incrimination when asked if he had ever been a member of the Communist Party or any affiliated body. This got him put under Army surveillance, but he was promoted nevertheless from captain to major in October 1953.

An anonymous source told the Senates Government Operations Committee about it. McCarthy, a Wisconsin Republican sitting on the committee and serving as chairman of its subcommittee on investigations, decided to hold hearings into communist saturation of the Army.

He wanted to know: How could someone under surveillance for communist connections get a promotion in the Army? This looked like yet another example of coddling communists, the senator said, adding that there was somewhere at the Pentagon a secret master who had somehow engineered Dr. Peresss promotion.

In hotbeds of anti-communism around the nation, the question was asked: Who promoted Dr. Peress?

Several times during his testimony before McCarthys committee, Dr. Peress invoked the Fifth Amendment. McCarthy called him a Fifth Amendment communist. Dr. Peress said anyone attacking him for exercising this right was himself guilty of subversion. He repeated that he never sought the violent overthrow of the U.S. government.

To McCarthy, Dr. Peress remained the key to the deliberate Communist infiltration of our Armed Forces.

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Irving Peress, dentist who was subject of Sen. Joseph McCarthys hearings, dies at 97

As she prepared to testify before a grand jury investigating improper leaks to the media, Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane acknowledged Monday that her office had released information but said it broke no laws.

"I will tell the special prosecutor the truth and the facts surrounding the disclosure of information to the public that was done in a way that did not violate statutory or case law regarding grand jury secrecy," Kane said, reading a prepared statement.

She spoke as she walked into an office building outside of Norristown where a grand jury is examining if Kane or her office improperly released sealed grand jury information to embarrass a political foe.

Kane called her grand jury appearance "the worst-kept secret of Pennsylvania."

Accompanied by two high-profile attorneys - New York criminal defense lawyer Gerald Shargel and former White House aide Lanny Davis - Kane declined to elaborate on her statement or take questions.

Davis, a former counsel to President Clinton, said she did not intend to invoke her Fifth Amendment right to refuse to answer questions.

The Inquirer has reported that special prosecutor Thomas Carluccio is examining whether Kane's office leaked secret information to The Philadelphia Daily News about a 2009 investigation, handled by her Republican predecessors, into the finances of former NAACP head J. Whyatt Mondesire.

The Daily News reported that Kane's office was trying to determine why the 2009 investigation did not result in any charges.

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Kane acknowledges leak, says it did not break law

Episode 1: Alice + Freda Forever by Alexis Coe
In this episode, we talk about Alexis Coe #39;s new book Alice + Freda Forever: A Murder in Memphis. Also discussed: the Fifth Amendment, monster truck rallies, Janet #39;s propensity for arson, lesbian...

By: The Book Report

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Episode 1: Alice + Freda Forever by Alexis Coe - Video

Last evening (November 13), attorneys Mike Aguirre and Maria Severson filed a suit in federal court saying that the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and Southern California Edison took 17.4 million ratepayers' property (money) by charging them $3.7 billion for electricity while the San Onofre nuclear plant was shut down, beginning in early 2012.

The theory is that the regulatory body and Edison were taking customers' private property without just compensation. That is banned by the Fifth Amendment.

Also named in the suit are Michael Peevey, president of the commission, and Mike Florio, one of the commissioners.

The only way that the California Public Utilities Commission could force customers to pay for failed generators at San Onofre would have been to show that Edison acted reasonably in obtaining the generators, according to the suit.

However, Edison deployed the steam generators without a safety license amendment from the Nuclear Regulator Commission. The decision came from the top of Edison, says the suit. Edison has admitted there were design errors causing steam generators to fail. A nuclear scientist was hired to do a study, but when he reported there had been errors, the CPUC obstructed his investigation, thus thwarting any determination of whether Edison was responsible for the failure, according to the suit, which notes that Peevey is a former president of Edison.

San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) owns 20 percent of the now-shuttered San Onofre, but is not named in the suit because it had opposed Edison's plans for replacing the old steam generators with four new ones.

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Suit says CA public utilities commission violated 5th Amendment

Posted: Wednesday, November 12, 2014 8:56 am | Updated: 12:06 pm, Wed Nov 12, 2014.

Charter school officials pleaded 'Fifth' 77 times Associated Press |

PHILADELPHIA (AP) Officials from an embattled Philadelphia charter school invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 77 times at hearings on the future of its charter.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1xgZtMI ) administrators from the Walter Palmer Leadership Learning Partners Charter School refused to answer questions on topics ranging from qualifications to the accuracy of invoices.

Last week's hearings were part of the Philadelphia school district's fight to revoke Walter Palmer's charter amid academic and financial stability concerns. The school's also the subject of a federal investigation.

A court recently ordered the school to return $1.5 million to the district after finding it enrolled twice the number of students allowed.

Walter Palmer shut down its high school last month in the city's Frankford neighborhood, forcing 280 students to enroll in other institutions.

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Information from: The Philadelphia Inquirer, http://www.inquirer.com

2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Charter school officials pleaded 'Fifth' 77 times