Republicans are constructing their case against Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, according to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan.
“So, specifically before your committee and also before Rand Paul over in the Senate, Dr. Fauci has, of course, absolved himself of all funding of gain-of-function,” conservative podcaster Benny Johnson said in an interview with Jordan. “He said he didn’t know anything about it. It is verifiable and demonstrable that he lied. Now, there are codes in Congress. I have a code right here, 18 U.S. Code 1001.”
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“Statements—false statements to Congress,” Johnson noted. “Says you can be imprisoned; says you can be imprisoned for eight years if you lie to Congress. It seems like there has never been a more clear-cut case of some individual lying to Congress.”
“Yeah, we can do it—there could be a referral, but you would refer to the Biden Justice Department,” Jordan responded. “I don’t know that — they’re going to pursue that, but you can do that. You could have one of the committees, and the Senate Judiciary Committee could make a referral. I doubt they will with the Democrats in charge.”
“We could do a referral potentially,” the Ohio Republican continued. “I would, frankly, prefer just to have Dr. Fauci come back in and take another round of questions here, but we’re building the case. You know, like, we had Dr. Redfield testify, and Chairman Wenstrup did. I thought he was—I thought he was great. As were the other witnesses that were brought in.”
Fauci says he’s received death threats because the GOP has demanded that he be prosecuted.
“I mean, they don’t like to have me getting death threats all the time. Every time someone gets up and spouts some nonsense that’s misinformation, disinformation, and outright lies, somebody somewhere decides they want to harm me and/or my family,” he said. “That’s the part of it that is unfortunate.”
“The rest of it is just insanity, the things they’re saying. But it does have a negative effect when people take it seriously and take it out on you and your family,” he added.
Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, gave Fauci a stern warning following his retirement in December of last year.
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When asked if there was anything he would do differently regarding the COVID-19 outbreak, Fauci responded in an interview that he had no regrets about how he handled the pandemic.
“Likely, there is no public figure, or public health figure, that has made a greater error in judgment than Dr. Fauci. The error in judgment was to fund gain-of-function research in a totalitarian country—fun research that allowed them to create super viruses that, in all likelihood, accidentally leaked into the public and caused seven million people to die,” during Senate oversight hearings into Fauci’s responses and recommendations regarding the pandemic, Paul and Fauci frequently disagreed, as stated by Paul.
In December 2021, Paul charged Fauci with lying to Congress and announced that he would be sending the case to the Biden Justice Department.
Paul said in a Fox Business interview that he does not “have a lot of hope” that Merrick Garland, President Biden’s attorney general, will prosecute Fauci because he does not believe that Garland will “objectively look” at the chief White House medical adviser’s congressional testimony.
“We’ve referred him to the Department of Justice, but then again, Merrick Garland is the one now going after parents that go to school board meetings,” Paul said.
Paul continued, “So I don’t have a lot of hope that Merrick Garland is objectively looking at Fauci’s lying,” before making a pointed 12-word statement about the NIAID director: “Fauci should go to prison for five years for lying to Congress.”
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) declared that Fauci would go to jail under any “sane system” during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C.
“There has been no person who has done more to destroy trust in the scientific and medical community than Dr. Anthony Fauci, who told millions of Americans lies willingly, knowingly, glibly, and supremely arrogantly,” Cruz said.
“Should there be accountability? In any sane system, he would be prosecuted for lying under oath, and he would go to jail for lying under oath to Congress,” he added.
