As President Joe Biden left office, he pardoned Anthony Fauci for any federal offenses he may have committed between January 1, 2014, and January 19, 2025, arising from his work as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and other organizations. More recently, the famous doctor refused to answer a single question posed by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, which is investigating federal agencies and their COVID-19 responses. He is now being referred to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for a possible criminal investigation into contempt of Congress for that refusal.
The Fauci Fiasco
The disease COVID-19 has largely faded from the public’s consciousness as mortality rates have dropped to nearly zero. However, the trauma (and drama) of the global pandemic has resurfaced with greater virulence than ever. At stake is much more than Anthony Fauci’s fate. Public trust in federal institutions, so-called “real science,” and even fellow citizens all accompany this unfolding transparency about who knew what, and when.
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America trusted Anthony Fauci as the face of a global response to what they were told was a deadly pandemic created by filthy diners in a wet market in China. This dubious narrative never seemed to align with common sense and even alleged that those questioning whether the bioweapons laboratory in Wuhan, China, was the source of the outbreak were racists. There was a pandemic pattern of everything being upside down. But recent events in the Fauci matter have ostensibly shattered the narrative peddled to the nation.
Normally, a referral by a congressional committee for a contempt of Congress violation would be voted on by the Senate and require 60 votes. Republicans likely cannot garner that consensus – the vote to hold Fauci in contempt fell along party lines. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chair Rand Paul (R-KY) has thus referred the matter directly to the DOJ for evaluation.
A Circus Hearing?
The doctor’s hijinks have been quite outrageous. At the hearing, where he invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination 111 times, Fauci opened with a prepared statement, which he sought to interpose in lieu of answering questions. He portrayed himself as the victim of a personal witch hunt by Sen. Paul, apparently oblivious that millions of Americans want answers and accountability.
But this tactic blew up in Fauci’s face. The Senate resolution referring him for possible federal prosecution specifically recites that “Chairman Paul further found Dr. Fauci waived his right to claim the privilege as a result of his opening testimony on subject matter pertinent to the questions under inquiry.” This adds yet another layer of legal complexity to an already confusing and fast-moving controversy.
Allegations that Fauci suspected COVID was concocted in a Wuhan lab and that he conspired to tell the public the opposite (to protect revelations about gain-of-function research and his complicity therein since 2014, the beginning date for his pardon) are extremely serious. Equally as severe are the claims that he knowingly amplified the mortality rate of the disease by a factor of five and did not inform Americans that only the elderly were at significant risk. It also appears he deliberately conspired to hide these truths and the public records that reveal them.
The Legal Strategy for Contempt
The Senate Committee voted down an effort to offer Fauci complete immunity in exchange for forthright testimony. This may have avoided an opportunity to platform Fauci invoking the Fifth again, which he likely would have done. Such a scenario may have further strengthened grounds for a contempt prosecution. Instead, the matter has been expeditiously referred to the DOJ.
The Biden pardons are federal and cannot shield Fauci from state claims. (The Wall Street Journal reports that “at least four Republican-led states have … launched their own investigations into Fauci.”) Nor can it protect him from perjury charges if he lies to the Committee after the January 19, 2025, pardon cut-off.
However, Fauci jeopardized his own protection when he defiantly ranted in a prepared statement to Paul’s Committee and then refused to say what color the carpet in the hearing room was. Fauci sought to have his cake and eat it, too, and that may be his undoing.
The Noose Tightens
The DOJ could decide that Fauci was entitled to invoke the Fifth Amendment’s protections because of possible state proceedings. Had he not postured with his opening salvo, he would likely have had a strong legal stance. But Rand Paul and the Senate Committee anticipated Fauci would play circus with their hearings and try this ploy. There is strong precedent for this position, and if it holds, it destroys his invocation of state claims as justification for silence.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his staff just released copies of Dr. Fauci’s phone records. Millions more documents related to this dispute have been promised. Fauci is in deep, and Democrats who seek to dismiss his alleged perfidy with claims of partisan retaliation risk pinning their own names to his actions in a volatile midterm season.
If Fauci wanted immunity, he should have just kept his mouth closed. By trying to use the committee hearing as a platform to vindicate himself and attack Rand Paul, Fauci stuck his neck into a potential noose that is tightening by the day.
