Murray, who faces a lawsuit by the families of the disaster victims in addition to congressional probes was subpoenaed late last year, but the hearing was rescheduled.
Murray's office declined to comment on the hearing or whether he will appear. Although compelled by subpoena to be present, he could decline to testify by exercising his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
The Senate Appropriations Committee's subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education and Related Agencies has scheduled two hearings on Thursday to look at the investigations into the mine tragedy and the status of efforts to improve safety in the aftermath.
Meanwhile, venerable Washington criminal defense attorney Bob S. Bennett, who represented President Clinton in the Monica Lewinsky scandal and The New York Times' Judith Miller during the investigation over Valerie Plame's outing as a CIA agent, said Monday he is "involved in the case," and was retained recently. He declined further comment.
Three Washington attorneys wrote last year in the American Criminal Law Review about congressional investigations and zeroed in on the effects of a client exercising the Fifth Amendment right before a committee. James Hamilton, Robert F. Muse and Kevin R. Amer said in their piece that political forces may dictate "success or failure" in how a client comes out of an investigation.
"If the client is the centerpiece of an investigation, success may come in minimizing the damage," the three wrote. "For example, taking the Fifth Amendment and refusing to testify will unsettle most corporate executives, but failing to do so may be a direct road to major criminal difficulties."
However, doing so publicly "often turns into a humiliating and demoralizing experience." Requiring a witness to take the Fifth Amendment may "create a spectacle," and allow members to berate the witness, turning public opinion against him or her.
Senate Associate Historian Donald Ritchie doesn't keep track of how many times witnesses have taken the Fifth Amendment before Congress, but he says it is "unusual."
"It's legitimate to do that but it doesn't happen too often," Ritchie says of taking the Fifth Amendment.
The subcommittee, which held the first hearing on the disaster last year, will first hear Thursday from the assistant Inspector General, Elliot Lewis, author of an audit last week calling the Mine Safety and Health Administration "negligent" in its actions surrounding the approval for the Crandall Canyon mine plan. Murray is scheduled to appear after Lewis.
In a separate hearing following, the panel is expected to hear from Richard Stickler, the head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration, and John Howard, the director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
Also slated to appear are Bruce Watzman, president of the National Mining Association; United Mine Workers of America President Cecil Roberts; and J. Davitt McAteer, who headed MSHA during the Clinton administration.
Murray, along with UtahAmerican Energy Inc. President Bruce Hill, also face subpoenas from a House committee to appear for depositions into the tragedy, though it is unclear whether the two have or will appear before committee investigators probing the cave-ins.
Six miners were trapped - and ultimately entombed - in the rural Utah mine on Aug. 6 after the area in which they were working collapsed. Three would-be rescuers died and six others were injured 10 days later in a separate cave-in.
tburr@sltrib.com
