In Counselman v. Hitchcock, 142 U.S. 547, 12 S.Ct. 195, 198, 35 L.Ed. 1110 (1892), the government argued that a witness could not invoke the Fifth Amendment in a grand jury proceeding because a criminal case did not exist. 142 U.S. at 562-63. The Supreme Court rejected this argument. After analyzing the Fifth Amendments text and underlying purpose, the Court held that the witness could plead the Fifth Amendment during a grand jury proceeding. Id. In the course of its analysis, the Court reasoned that the language criminal case is broader than the Sixth Amendments phrase criminal prosecution. Id. In that case, appellant appeared before a grand jury which was then in official session, in response to a subpoena served upon him, and, after having been duly sworn, was interrogated. As to several questions, he replied " I decline to answer on the ground that it might tend to incriminate me." For such refusal, he was adjudged to be in contempt of court, and was duly sentenced. From an order discharging his writ of habeas corpus, he appealed. The Supreme Court, in commenting upon the proceedings before the grand jury, said: "The matter under investigation by the grand jury in this case was a criminal matter . If Counselman had been guilty of the matters inquired of in the questions which he refused to answer, he himself was liable to criminal prosecution under the act. The case before the grand jury was, therefore, a criminal case. ". Appellee contended that the investigation before the grand jury was not a "criminal prosecution", and that appellant was not entitled to the assistance of counsel under the provisions of the sixth amendment to the constitution. The Court, with reference to such contention, said: "But this provision (the Sixth Amendment) distinctly means a criminal prosecution against a person who is accused and who is to be tried by a petit jury. A criminal prosecution under article 6 of the amendments is much narrower than a `criminal case,' under article 5 of the amendments. It is entirely consistent with the language of article 5 that the privilege of not being a witness against himself is to be exercised in a proceeding before a grand jury."