Solyndra execs will take the Fifth (UPDATED)

◼ Sept 20 (Reuters) - Solyndra LLC's chief executive and chief financial officer will invoke their Fifth Amendment rights and decline to answer any questions put to them at a Congressional hearing on Friday, according to letters from their attorneys obtained by Reuters.

◼ Email shows Solyndra execs broke pledge to testify - Philip Klein/Washington Examiner

Originally, the company's president and chief executive, Brian Harrison, and W.G. Stover, Jr., its chief financial officer, were scheduled to testify as part of last Wednesday's hearing on questionable loans before the House Energy and Commerce's oversight subcommittee. That testimony was pushed back to this Friday, with the understanding, according to top committee members, that they would answer questions.

But yesterday, the executives informed the committee that they would be invoking their Fifth Amendment right not to answer questions. House Energy and Commerce Chairman Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., and oversight subcommittee chairman Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., said this violated "repeated assurances that they would testify voluntarily and answer questions." Today, they've released evidence backing up that view.