Fauci held in contempt of Congress: ‘Accountability is not vengeance’

In an 8 to 7 vote, Republicans on the committee elected unanimously to refer Fauci to the Department of Justice (DOJ) on a Contempt of Congress charge while Democrats opposed the move.  

During his 3-hour July 29 appearance before the Senate Homeland Security Committee (SHSC), chaired by Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment 111 times, despite having been issued a blanket pardon by President Joe Biden.  

“Dr. Fauci faced no risk of federal persecution. All he had to do was tell the truth,” noted Sen. Paul at the outset of the hearing. Yet, “More than 100 times, he refused.” 

“We’re 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,” explained Paul.

While today’s vote by the SHSC avoids the normal procedure of taking the issue to the full Senate where a 60-vote majority would be required to refer the charge to the DOJ, ranking member Gary Peters (D-MI) warned that Republicans might be setting up a “dangerous precedent.”    

“More than a million Americans died from COVID,” said Paul. “Many of them died alone. Workers were forced to choose between a mandate and a job they needed. Businesses closed and never reopened. Children lost years of school they will never get back. Americans lost the freedom to work, to worship, and to decide what went into their own bodies.”  

“Nothing we do today can undo those losses, but silence does not honor them either,” he declared. 

“This committee and the American people have a right to know why Dr. Fauci’s agency funded dangerous research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and what role he played in approving and overseeing it; why he told his colleagues to delete emails; why he told them to delete emails and then delete the deleted file,” Paul continued. 

The American people have a right to know: “What was he told in January 2020? What was said on those calls?” and “What his agency did with, and for, the Intelligence Community.”  

“Knowing what he knows now, [does Fauci] still believe the risks were worth taking?” wondered Paul. 

“Seeking the truth is not a witch hunt. Accountability is not vengeance,” said Paul. “Accountability is what stands between the American people and a repeat of the mistakes and very real consequences of the past.”

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) started by accusing Democrats of burying the truth. “They want to memory hole it.”

“It has been six years since the pandemic began. We have not had a reckoning of what happened,” he averred. 

Johnson said that last week’s hearing raised legitimate questions that “only Fauci – Saint Fauci. Mr. Science – could answer.”  

He recounted the numerous times that Fauci claimed over the years that he had “nothing to hide,” yet “that was not the position he took last Wednesday.”

“What he displayed last Wednesday was contempt for Congress. Contempt for this committee. Contempt for investigation.”

“The other side, like way too many Americans, have just closed their eyes, covered up their ears, and refused, refused, to look at the truth,” he emphasized. 

“Today’s resolution is a continuation of Senator Paul’s personal vendetta against Dr. Fauci, who spent 50 years in public health and has saved countless lives,” said Fauci’s lawyer, David Schertler. 

“It is shameful and wrong that Senator Paul is abusing his power by trying to weaponize the Justice Department against an honorable public servant,” claimed Schertler, who was ejected last week from the committee room after disrupting the hearing. 

“The right to do something does not mean it’s the right thing to do,” argued commentator and George Washington University law professor, attorney Jonathan Turley during a Fox News interview regarding the hearing.  

“I think what Fauci did was wrong. Millions of Americans lost loved ones during the pandemic. Thousands of businesses were put out of business due to these challenged policies. Academics were canceled, fired, for opposing his [Fauci’s] viewpoints. They all deserve to hear from him,” said Turley.

Turley added that in view of the legal protections provided to him by Biden’s blanket presidential pardon, Fauci’s “contempt charge may be challengeable.”

“I don’t think his contempt for the public is,” he concluded.