so first, donnie would have to be indicted for something covered by the pardon. generally speaking, unless there's already a case in progress, the doj would normally never bother with a futile exercise like that. but in theory, they could.
at that point, most people with pardons would produce that pardon in court to dismiss the charges, and that would be that, but the pardon would be considered "accepted" at that point.
donnie, however, would probably milk the situation for headlines, stall the legal process through other means, cry 'witch hunt' in the media, but *not* introduce the pardon while the whole process lets him play victim. eventually, maybe right before a trial, he'd produce the pardon and again, the case would be over, and at that point, the pardon would be "accepted".
the house can subpoena him at any point. he has 5th amendment rights until he's accepted the pardon. if he's questioned by the house after the pardon has been accepted, then he no longer has the right to refuse testimony, but that is limited to possible crimes covered by the pardon.
so for instance, if he was pardoned for federal tax evasion, he could still refuse to testify about tax crimes if that would expose him to state-level criminal liability.
if there were no potential criminal liability in any other jurisdiction, then he would have no basis to refuse to answer the question.
that, of course, is when he then says, "i don't remember".
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