The truth you can tell is only a fraction of a larger truth encompassing the entire universe of facts for a case the government may be investigating. Even if y

The truth you can tell is only a fraction of a larger truth encompassing the entire universe of facts for a case the government may be investigating. Even if your portion of that truth is completely free of any wrongdoing, when combined with the rest of the facts that may include lies or mistakes by other witnesses or incorrect analysis of physical evidence, you can end up getting into trouble for telling the truth. But we have never held, as the Supreme Court of Ohio did, that the privilege is unavailable to those who claim innocence. To the contrary, we have emphasized that one of the Fifth Amendment's "basic functions ... is to protect innocent men ... 'who otherwise might be ensnared by ambiguous circumstances.' " Grunewald v. United States, 353 U. S. 391, 421 (1957) (quoting Slochower v. Board of Higher Ed. of New York City, 350 U. S. 551, 557-558 (1956)) (emphasis in original). In Grunewald, we recognized that truthful responses of an innocent witness, as well as those of a wrongdoer, may provide the government with incriminating evidence from the speaker's own mouth. 353 U. S., at 421-422. -- Supreme Court in Ohio v Matthew Reiner, http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=US&navby=case&vol=000&invol=00-1028 http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=US&#3...