‘All he had to do was tell the truth’: Senate committee holds Fauci in contempt

By Bob Unruh

Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, addresses his remarks at a roundtable on donating plasma Thursday, July 30, 2020, at the American Red Cross-National Headquarters in Washington, D.C. (Official White House photo by Tia Dufour)
Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, addresses his remarks at a roundtable on donating plasma Thursday, July 30, 2020, at the American Red Cross-National Headquarters in Washington, D.C. (Official White House photo by Tia Dufour)

A U.S. Senate committee on Thursday voted 8-5 to hold Anthony Fauci, once the chief of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Joe Biden’s key COVID-19 pandemic adviser, in contempt of Congress.

An immediate referral to the Department of Justice for a formal investigation and possible criminal charges was expected.

It was a vote in the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs committee that put Fauci, whose contempt for the American public already was in evidence through the release of a diary he kept on government computers, in the position of facing possible legal consequences.

He repeatedly praised himself in that diary, bragging he was the most talked about American, even while commenting on the source of COVID, the treatment, precautions and more, all the while contradicting those statements to the public in demanding masking, social distancing, the injecting of dangerous shots on Americans. He insisted schools be closed, damaging millions of children, then denied doing that.

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Fauci had been handed a blanket pardon by Biden before the Democrat left office, yet still refused to answer Senate committee questions 111 times during last week’s hearing. He claimed Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination over incidents for which he faced no criminal prosecutions.

The Washington Examiner explained, “Republicans argue Fauci’s acceptance of the pardon meant that he had a responsibility to answer the committee’s questions during the high-profile hearing last week. … He pleaded his Fifth Amendment right to silence more than 100 times during the hearing and only spoke to deliver his opening statement, during which he accused Paul of having an ‘obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution.'”

It was Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who proposed the resolution targeting Fauci.

“That is what we are voting on today, not his opinions, not his policies, not anything he said from a podium six years ago. We are voting on whether a witness who has received the benefit of a sweeping federal pardon can be ordered by this committee to answer questions and then defy that order without consequence,” Paul said.

Democrats made five motions that would have postponed the vote but all of their schemes were rejected.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., charged that Fauci was running a “predetermined, premeditated design to evade this committee’s questions on any subject.”

Officials in Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida already have begun their own investigations, and have been demanding Fauci’s testimony. Biden’s pardon would not protect him from any state counts.

 

Bob Unruh

Bob Unruh joined WND in 2006 after nearly three decades with the Associated Press, as well as several Upper Midwest newspapers, where he covered everything from legislative battles and sports to tornadoes and homicidal survivalists. He is currently a news editor for the WND News Center, and also a photographer whose scenic work has been used commercially. Read more of Bob Unruh's articles here.


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