Peanut Corp. Owner Takes the Fifth

Stewart Parnell, president of Peanut Corp. of America, invoked his Fifth Amendment rights in refusing to testify before the House energy and commerce committee on Wednesday during a hearing on the salmonella outbreak. Plant manager Sammy Lightsey also took the Fifth.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports: "Parnell and Lightsey declined to even come into the House hearing room while victims told of their dead loved ones killed by salmonella linked to the company’s peanut butter. Later, Parnell and Lightsey refused to answer any questions from committee members—including whether they would eat any of their own products, which one congressman showed off in a plastic container wrapped with crime scene tape."

The panel is now asking nervous government officials what went wrong. You can watch the hearing live here.