Here's the Washington Post article: "Fauci invokes Fifth Amendment in hearing before Rand Paul and Senate GOP/At a hearing on covid-19, the former infectious-disease official said he would avoid answering contentious questions" (gift link):
He declined to answer questions from [Senator Rand] Paul, who began the hearing by asking Fauci about the pandemic response and whether there was a folder in front of him on the table.
In a separate statement shared with The Post, Fauci’s lawyer alleged that Paul was fixated on Fauci after their clashes at the height of the pandemic — referring to a 2021 incident when the two men traded accusations of lying — and that the senator’s sole purpose for the hearing was to punish Fauci and see him in prison....
What about the pardon?
Fauci was preemptively pardoned by President Joe Biden before he left office, with Biden saying that Fauci and other officials receiving preemptive pardons had not committed wrongdoing but were at risk from the incoming Trump administration. Ahead of the hearing, Paul and other Republicans had said if Fauci lied to the Senate on Wednesday, it would fall outside the protections conveyed by Biden’s pardon....
పోస్ట్లు
272 కామెంట్లు:
«అన్నిటి కంటే పాతది ‹పాతవి 272లో 201 – 272Fauci always has been a joke. He’s too pompous even for the Senate.
Ref the FL investigation of Fauci: It would be an interesting can of worms to unpack. Fauci would of course immediately claim Supremacy Clause immunity as a federal officer. FL would respond that he was literally breaking federal law with his little GoF program. Fauci would also argue that FL mostly ignored his Covid guidance, so they did not suffer from any of his alleged crimes, and therefore have no standing.
But hey, the process is the punishment. Blue states are making ICE and CBP guys go through all this right now, on $80K salaries. The highest-paid federal employee ever can certainly afford the legal bills. And he will help us sort out intricate questions of agency law. He will live forever in casebook captions! CC, JSM
‘fly out “turding”…
Maybe another country can prosecute Fauci under their laws. Italy was the tip of the spear in the initial Covid breakout. They have shown no fear of prosecuting Americans: CIA renditioners, Amanda Knox, etc. Fauci might even be an Italian dual citizen - all 4 grandparents were immigrants. Or Israel could do an Eichmann on him. I don't think they've snatched anyone in the USA yet, but we are in a new era. Or a Mexican drug cartel could snatch him, then Israel could 'rescue' him from a fourth country and make him Man In The Glass Booth II. Lots of possibilities. CC, JSM
“Obviously, Fauci decided telling the truth was more dangerous (even with no fear of prosecution) than facing prosecution with a contempt charge.”
—— John Nolte
Fauci’s only federal defense to state law charges is that he was doing his job in good faith. The “mistakes were made” defense.
Can’t take the fifth on that defense.
His diary shows he was lying to state public health officials, Congress, and the president. So the “mistakes were made defense” goes nowhere.
ai answers: "Under American law, the core difference is that rights are inherent, legally protected entitlements that the government cannot easily revoke, while privileges are conditional permissions granted by the government that can be restricted or taken away if specific rules are broken."
I didn’t think I could hate that evil little bastard any more. It's his right to refuse to answer any questions but he already has immunity. This was just pure spite for the American people.
Fauci the Fifth... let's all sue the bastard... small claims court. $500. 80 million adults sue him at the same time all over the USA...
The number of democrats who looked at the evidentiary materials assembled by Rand Paul?
Zero.
*I didn’t think I could hate that evil little bastard any more.*
Don't focus your hate just on Fauci. There were millions of Americans who went right along with him and bludgeoned the rest of us for not doing the same.
” William said...
I read the WP article. Not surprisingly, it's about as positive a write up for Fauci as you can imagine. What would you expect? The Washington Post was part of it.......I don't think threatening to jail Fauci is the percentage play”
I would prefer long drop hanging. 22 million excess deaths due to COVID according to the latest estimates.
Also does not invoking 5A imply truthful forthcoming if immunity granted?
Go after truth not punishment since catastrophe have many father and mother
“ William said...
I read the WP article. Not surprisingly, it's about as positive a write up for Fauci as you can imagine. What would you expect? The Washington Post was part of it.......I don't think threatening to jail Fauci is the percentage play”
Hang the little bastard. 22 million excess deaths since 2019 per the latest estimates.
gadfly posted: “ The (Jan 6) committee had offered some clues about how many witnesses had taken the Fifth. Back in June, committee vice chair Liz Cheney (R-WY) hinted at the scope of noncooperation: “To date, more than 30 witnesses called before this committee … have invoked their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.”
How many people died on Jan 6? Easy to count. One.
How many people died as a result of Covid? One …… million.
I think investigating the origin of this disease and how it was handled is pretty important.
Below quote is from the local newspaper when a science complex was dedicated to Fauci at Holy Cross.
"Fauci, who has served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, said that staying faithful to the truth, “even truths that may be inconvenient to sell,” is vital in these times. "
I just had this thought: Covid is like Iran-Contra. Violating congressional guidelines and spending tax dollars in another country to kill people. But the Iran-Contra guys only killed Nicaraguans and messed up that country.
Fauci should suffer at least as much as the Iran-Contra guys. Which admittedly wasn't that much: mostly process/punishment stuff. But still, it's something. CC, JSM
Also, 'privilege' as used in courts and similar proceedings is a term of art, i.e. far removed from its normal English meaning. A lot of privileges against testifying are available. Some, like self-incrimination, are directly linked to constitutional rights or to un-enumerated rights that have been recognized for centuries. Others, like doctor-patient or spousal privileges, are only indirectly linked to rights, if at all. The law just refers to them all as privileges because they all function about the same.
I suppose the word 'excuse' might be less confusing - you have an excuse not to testify because of such-and-such. Or 'exemption?' Maybe 'shield.' Take it up with our forebears. CC, JSM
This X post from the "Drunk Republican":
"Confession: I’m not as hardcore angry as some people are over COVID. Or I wasn’t anyways, for a while.
To me it was always this weird thing that came out of nowhere and judging peoples’ reactions to it or, worse, assuming their motives, struck me as slightly disingenuous.
The problem for me came when the evidence that COVID wasn’t a mass extinction event started piling up, yet our policies remained the same.
At that point I knew that these policies, guided by Fauci and Weingarten and others, were not aimed at our comfort or safety but rather remained in place because they both satisfied massive egos and were politically advantageous to Democrats.
And from then on I viewed every bit of suffering as almost entirely preventable, and I’ve never been able to forgive the people who let it, nay willed it, to happen.
My anger is in no way satiated by the fact that not only are these people walking freely among us, but they’re even celebrated as heroes by half the country.
It is amazing, yet not surprising, that for all the left’s protestations about “injustice” they purposely overlook, even celebrate, the most egregious abuse of power in my lifetime.
I have resigned myself to the fact that nothing will happen to these people in terms of facing justice."
Can Democrat block immunity for Fauci?
The Approval Process
Invocation of Privilege: The witness must first appear before a Senate committee or subcommittee and refuse to answer a question by invoking their Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination.
Committee Vote: A formal request to compel the testimony through immunity requires approval by either an affirmative vote of a majority of the members present of the full Senate, or by a two-thirds vote of the full committee seeking the order (under procedural rules outlined in 18 U.S.C. § 6005(b))
We no longer tar and feather people for public humiliation like the Duke and the Dauphin in Huckleberry Finn. Two pricks who deserved it. Mark Twain knew it, and so does every reader.
With the release of the diaries, and the hearing today, Rand Paul tarred and feathered Anthony Fauci. It might be the best we're going to get, so I thoroughly enjoyed it. Fauci is well aware of today's humiliation. For a false prophet and a man basked in the limelight, it will live in his head every day until he dies.
His worshipers know the humiliation is real. Hard for them to swallow as well.
I felt very satisfied today. I know I shouldn't revel in the emotional suffering of another human being. But I did.
I'll pray for forgiveness. Fauci, the liberal scientific savior, should consider doing the same.
Now, that would be interesting. Imagine, a foreign ally - say, Saudi Arabia - works up a case charging Fauci with crimes under their system. And produces an extradition for his corpus. Who controls the justice and immigration systems, such that a person so accused could be produced for extradition, I wonder, like within 4 or 5 minutes? Or course that could be perceived to be an abuse of office, being used to punish same. But it wouldn't be an unreasonable seizure would it, considering today's levels of cooperation? Just spitballin', of course.
Amazing how all Democrat political crime culminating into Constitutional Impasse and flummoxed Republicans
When you 85 years old all you have left before depart this earth is your legacy/ reputation. Dr. Anthony Fauci has lost it, all of it. How do you think Fauci will sleep tonight?
Even if Fauci was entirely innocent and was giving accurate advice, I still don't know how you get to the silly fawning stage of many celebrities who fell in love for some reason. Those people are definitely a different species.
Fauci won’t be extradited for the same reason we won’t allow any of our service members to be extradited. Australia may want to open that can of worms for those who serve their government civilly or militarily, but the US won’t. But you do have to wonder why the ICC, which constantly tries to bring international criminal charges on US citizens isn’t even trying in regards to Fauci.
True he wont be extradited from the USA. But if countries gen up some warrants for him, he wont be able to go to those countries, or to any third countries that do extradite to them. He could become a global PNG. Not a huge punishment, but still a slap in his smug globetrotting face.
And of course there would be the process/punishment every time some other country files a request with the State Department to extradite him. More billable hours that either Fauci or his fellow travelers have to pay. You know, people keep telling Trump to stop telegraphing his moves. He can start with the extradition requests. Let the process play out. He felt he had to do that for Navarro, Bannon, etc. Might as well do it when it’s an actual enemy sweating bullets. CC, JSM
Hawley tore him a new asshole. It must have killed him to just sit there and take it.
Good for Dr Fauci for standing his ground and exposing the hearing for the partisan sham that it was. The level of falsehoods and personal attacks from Rand Paul, Josh Hawley, and others was astonishing. The Senate devolved into a forum for a political show trial and the public denunciation of a leading scientist.Republicans are clearly desperate to change the subject. They fear electoral defeat in November because of Trump’s decisions and policies—and their own role in enabling them.
Hence, this retrospective on Anthony Fauci.
Tony “No Kings” Fauci !
Indefinitely Extended Excursion™️ said...
The level of falsehoods.....
----------------
It would help if you could list maybe 10 of these?
The doctor is out…
of his mind.
From his diary - just an online journal- he cared about fame and money.
He turned his powerful access into a money machine of grift and gifts.
He ears millions from WE THE TAX PAYER.
Hawley tore him a new asshole ...
R U saying R's revel wading into shit relishingly
Civil lawsuits - real ones. Not fake ones like E-Jean.
*The level of falsehoods and personal attacks from Rand Paul, Josh Hawley, and others was astonishing. *
The falsehoods taken directly from Fauci's diary?
You, too, can go straight to hell.
I've taken enough shit from people like you over the last six years. I'm done with it, and you.
For hanuman_prodigious_leaper ...
--------------------
tear someone a new asshole and tear someone a new one,
to chastise someone severely. (Usually objectionable.) The colonel glared at him and threatened to tear him a new asshole. If you don’t get it right this time, I’ll tear you a new one!
See also: asshole, new, someone, tear
The thing to do next is to continue the investigation. Fauci didn’t work alone and not everyone got a pardon. Time to call others. They’ll plead the fifth too, but after a half dozen civil servants refuse to answer basic questions, the question will become, what crimes are they avoiding? Or someone will not plead the fifth.
Here are several examples:
1. Claim: Fauci “caused” the COVID-19 pandemic through NIH-funded research.
◦ This was implied or asserted by several Republican senators.
◦ Evidence: There is no established evidence that Fauci caused the pandemic. While debate continues over whether COVID-19 originated through a natural spillover or a laboratory accident, there is no conclusive evidence linking Fauci personally or demonstrating that NIH-funded research caused the outbreak. U.S. intelligence agencies remain divided on the origin.
2. Claim: Fauci was proven to have lied to Congress about gain-of-function research.
◦ This has been a recurring allegation by Rand Paul.
◦ Evidence: Whether the Wuhan research met the government’s technical definition of “gain-of-function” has long been disputed. Multiple reviews, including prior NIH explanations and independent fact-checks, have concluded there is insufficient evidence to say Fauci knowingly lied under oath. The disagreement has largely centered on scientific and regulatory definitions rather than demonstrably false testimony.
3. Claim: Newly released diary entries prove a COVID cover-up.
Senators cited Fauci’s diaries as revealing contradictions.
◦ Evidence: As of today, no independent analysis has shown that the diaries contain evidence of criminal conduct or a coordinated cover-up. Most reporting indicates they contain private deliberations and evolving scientific judgments rather than a “smoking gun.”
4. Claim: Invoking the Fifth Amendment is evidence of guilt.
◦ Several members suggested Fauci’s refusal to answer was effectively an admission.
◦ Evidence: Legally, that is incorrect. The Fifth Amendment is a constitutional protection. Courts have consistently held that invoking it is not, by itself, proof that someone committed a crime. Whether Fauci’s invocation was legally appropriate given his pardon is a separate legal question.
5. Claim: The hearing established that the lab leak theory has been proven.
◦ Some comments treated the lab leak hypothesis as settled fact.
◦ Evidence: The current consensus remains that the origin of SARS-CoV-2 is unresolved. Some intelligence agencies assess a laboratory incident with varying confidence, while others favor natural spillover, and several agencies remain undecided. No definitive proof has emerged for either explanation.
One criticism leveled was that much of the hearing resembled an effort to reinforce preexisting narratives rather than uncover new facts. Because Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment throughout, little new evidence was actually introduced, leaving senators to restate arguments they have made for years.
That said, it’s also fair to note that not every criticism of Fauci is false. There are legitimate debates about pandemic policies—such as school closures, masking guidance, and communication with the public, where reasonable experts continue to disagree. Those policy disagreements should be distinguished from factual claims alleging criminal misconduct or intentional deception, which require a much higher evidentiary standard.
I have not seen a single comment, post or tweet in which anyone has said, in effect: "Wow--Fauci's "diary" and his invocation of the Fifth Amendment has convinced me that what I believed about the man and what I believed about Covid, based on what he told us, was terribly wrong, and I need to rethink things."
Maybe that will take a while. But is is awfully hard to deny the damning evidence of his own words.
“Science” taking the 5th is so, so appropriate post Covid. Remember those bastions of Truth and Science, Nature Magazine, The Lancet, the New England Journal of Medicine, all retracting articles, all along the same lines during Covid? Remember England’s Imperial College launching — with Dr. Fraudi’s council — shutting down the UK and soon the entire world? Remember when Dr. Fraudi raced to the microphone to denounce Trump’s lauding of hydroxychloriquine which he knew at the time was a decent therapeutic as his diary shows?
Science my ass. Yeah, please take the 5th Science.
🚨🚨D-Bag Fauci Alert!🚨🚨
https://x.com/i/status/2082550593143611878
Andy Kim (D-Dumbass) was layin’ a little bullschiff on us
Listen to yourself, IEE. Spinning furiously, picking at nits, grasping at straws, parsing words to deny what is as plain as the nose on your face. St. Anthony Fauci knowingly presented a horrendously false picture of the "science" of Covid to a) save his own ass, and b) gratify his enormous ego. At great cost to everyone except Anthony Fauci and those who benefitted from the Covid grift. As proven by his own recorded diary.
And you can't face that.
Sad.
wait, who was president when COVID 1ST STRUCK America? trump right..AND the president is responsible for what happens on his watch(you know the ole BUCK STOPS HERE deal) and fauci IS BEING GRILLED? Silly bears... who makes final decisIons..NOT A TRICK QUESTION. BINGO RIGHT THE PRESIDENT.. NEXT
A public servant who performed admirably in a crisis is being publicly persecuted, maybe prosecuted. Government websites are being given over to propaganda. Fake medicines are being praised while lifesaving vaccines are lied about. Malicious grifters crow their triumph.
Much ado about nothing Burger
IEE provides a jaw-dropping example of Scott Adams's Two Movies.
I was on Substack a lot yesterday and today; there was an article entitled something like "Do Partisans Believe What They Say?" This is a question I find myself asking a LOT about IEE. The rest of our lefties, not so much - when something like this hearing happens, they tend to bow out for the most part, because "their side" has done something clearly indefensible. (For what it's worth, on those occasions when Trump steps on his... tie, many of us get pretty quiet too.) IEE, like a truffle pig, keeps snuffling around in the dirt until he finds the angle he believes he can use. Only what he finds is not as valuable as a truffle.
Side note: it was an interesting article. The researchers didn't acknowledge their own biases until well into it, when - with what I can only imagine was that sinking feeling in the pit of their stomachs - they finally realized that maybe their Republican participants were telling them what they thought they wanted to hear, rather than what the Republican participants believed to be true.
@ Indefinitely Extended Excursion™️ ...
Thank you for the examples.
Tony always did have his dim-witted admirers.
https://youtu.be/dAgPlmCqhT8?is=Mi1qcXzTwoRtSMJc
One can certainly tell who held public sector jobs in this crowd during COVID. Some people had their lives upended and ruined (in some cases), but they had worked in the private sector, where employees are paid for their performance… hard work and productivity. They paid a heavy price, in many cases, during the shutdown.
Government workers could get paid while sitting on their asses at home, surfing the internet.
So was the play to take the 5th to avoid state prosecution?
As a hypothetical, it would be interesting to see Donald Trump pardon all American citizens for Federal Crimes committed in the precise dates of the Fauci Pardon. I am pressed to think of any Federal crime more heinous than the actions of Fauci. Maybe El Chapo or El Mayo.
A couple takeaways -
1 - Fauci mentioning the lack of redactions of his diary damns only himself. He wrote their names. No reason he should be spared the wrath of any one of those peed off people. Unbelievable that he even called that out. He deserves no mercy on that.
2 - Invoking the fifth indicates it’s all still about him. He doesn’t give a damn about what he’s done, even now. If he had any remorse, he’d throw himself on the mercy of the proceeding. He’s truly a narcissistic putz scumbag.
My unsolicited advice to Republicans for the midterms is to spend every day from now until the election talking about Fauci and Covid. Maybe even promise more Fauci hearings if you retain the majority. Let Rand Paul speak in every swing district/state. Should be a winning formula.
The notion that the lab leak theory and the wet market theory are on equal footing is painfully naive, or disingenuous in the extreme. The virus appeared in the city, in the *neighborhood*, of a research lab performing exactly the experiments which would have created it; using protocols described in detail by the researchers of that lab proposed in grant proposals (protocols that were rejected for being too dangerous). The virus has properties that the end product of those proposals would have produced.
The lab leak theory is the default explanation. Any other theory carries the burden of displacing it with overwhelming evidence.
Fauci took the fifth today because he could not be repeat his previous answers given under oath, too. The information since released by the government had shown most of his previous answers to have been lies- most of the information from his very own files. He faced a choice of repudiating his previous testimony or having to perjure himself a second time. He made the only reasonable choice left to someone with no honor.
I watched a good portion of today's hearing- Fauci seemed emotionally defeated. He knows he has been shown to have lied relentlessly- it is why he was given that ridiculous pardon in the first place- the people who arranged it knew his perjury was indefensible. If I were trying to prosecute a criminal case here, I would target the virologists who were clearly coerced into writing that natural origins paper- their silence was purchased in some fashion- get them under oath and ask them about these text chains.
Glenn Reynolds on Fauci
"I think the answer is that Fauci, and Faucism, represented the apotheosis of what the managerial/academic/journo class desires: An excuse for sweeping power, based on (alleged) expertise, in which they could ride roughshod over those stupid proles and flyover people while preening about the allegedly superior moral and intellectual qualities that justify their rule.
Then it turned out that they were wrong about nearly everything and — as Fauci’s diaries demonstrate — knew it at the time, at least at the top. And their overreach is one of the things that gave us Trump 47."
Media(D) loved the narrative Fauci gave them.
Yancey #######!
During their last-ever phone call on Nov. 1, 2020, Trump reportedly said to Fauci, "Tony,"I really like you, and you know that, but what the fuck are you doing? You really need to be positive.
The public record shows President Donald Trump awarded Dr. Anthony Fauci a presidential commendation — not the Presidential Medal of Freedom — on January 19, 2021, explicitly recognizing Fauci’s work on Operation Warp Speed.
"the virologists who were clearly coerced into writing that natural origins paper- their silence was purchased in some fashion"
It was purchased with grant funding, which is their professional life blood. They knew future grants could flow or dry up based upon their cooperation.
I did this for a living. In the normal course of things, funding success is pretty hands off by NIH. But Fauci had the authority to intervene. Researchers aren't stupid.
Anderson in particular had a competitive renewal coning up at the time.
*The public record shows President Donald Trump awarded Dr. Anthony Fauci a presidential commendation — not the Presidential Medal of Freedom — on January 19, 2021, explicitly recognizing Fauci’s work on Operation Warp Speed.*
We know this, shit-for-brains. It's already been discussed. And it has nothing to do with Fauci's repeated lies.
Republicans "selectively released" records that Democrats minority never saw, withholding document and evidence from them, Peters said in his opening statement, after Paul's lengthy remarks about Fauci's alleged misconduct. He accused Paul of removing part of the committee's website from the public after Peters asked him to include Democrats in the investigation.
Peters' accusation is "categorically false," Paul responded.
******"Democrats didn't see the documentation because "no Democrat ever signed up for it," he said."******
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/coronavirus/democrats-never-used-access-code-gop-gave-them-review-damning-fauci
Comment from Jonathan Turley's blog about Fauci...
James says:July 29, 2026 at 2:14 PM
Yup. That was a disgrace. But it was exactly what I and others expected, plead the fifth to quite literally everything, and he did.
No innocent person needs 12 attorneys. He will do a Hillary. The Nazis wished they had these levels of a$$ covering. Disgusting. Ladies and gentlemen, we officially have a new Angel of Death, and one that will simply get off, Scot free. I think when the Biden cabal was in charge, Ted Bundy probably would have walked. This is where we are at with the modern left.
I agree 100% with wendybar. Moreover it seems to me that the defenders of Fauci engaging in legal-like pettifoggery to defend him are at least as culpable as he is, and deserve to be punished much worse.
IEE
You're overlooking the statements in Fauci's diary. He knew it wasn't more dangerous than flu - though flu is very dangerous for older people. He knew the wet market theory was wrong. He said the opposite and you believed him. You were deceived. You can't or won't acknowledge it even when the person who lied to you is taking the Fifth in front of Congress about his lies. It's as if youe were concussed and you can't remember the blow or how it happened and you are wandering about in daze thinking you are still in 2020. Fauci is not a distinguished scientist - he has been revealed by his own diary as a gigantic fraudster and you are revealing yourself as one of those he defrauded.
Fauci has not publicly explained his legal strategy in detail, but his attorney indicated he was invoking the Fifth because of concerns that his testimony could expose him to further legal jeopardy or additional investigations.
• He may believe the scope or validity of the pardon could someday be challenged.
• A pardon generally applies only to specified federal offenses and does not automatically eliminate every conceivable legal risk (for example, it would not bar unrelated future crimes or necessarily protect against every possible state-law issue).
• Even if prosecutors ultimately could not convict him, answering hundreds of detailed questions under oath creates a risk of accusations of perjury or false statements if his testimony is later alleged to be inconsistent.
From 1961. Imagine you are reading this while watching Fauci's non-testimony: "The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded. Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite." -- President Eisenhower's Fairwell Address
I seem to remember those things differently, rich.
You are being disingenuous in #1. No. Fauci did not "cause" the pandemic. That was entirely on the Chinese in their lab. Dr. Fauci gave impetus for the research. The Chinese weaponized it.
Good leftist talking point though.
In June of 2020 Fauci's diary shows he was very concerned that operation warp speed might produce a vaccine before the November election which would help Trump. He was determined to not let this happen. And it didn't. How many died from Covid because Fauci didn't want Trump to have a win before the election? Pure politics with life and death. That's American hero, Dr Fauci.
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