Below is my column on Fox.com on yesterday’s “testimony” from Dr. Anthony Fauci. Americans deserve answers to the questions raised by his diary and other remarks. The most likely course to gain such answers would be through an immunity grant. The impact of a pardon on invocations is a bit murky but, as I stated yesterday, the odds favor Fauci in a court finding that he can still invoke the privilege. In any challenge, a court would likely find that there remains a risk of self-incrimination. What is clear is that many in Washington would prefer Fauci to remain silent on the questions raised by his diary.
Here is the column:
“Stick with the science and never veer from that, even when the science turns out to be an inconvenient truth for somebody.” Dr. Anthony Fauci delivered those words to Georgetown students in 2017 as the touchstone of medical ethics. Today, before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, that line was replaced by Fauci in repeating “On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.”
The optics could not have been worse, but what you saw depended largely on how you viewed the hearing. For critics, Fauci sounded like Crazy Joe Gallo without the sunglasses. For supporters, Fauci is still a hero who refused to fall into a trap laid out before him. Democratic senators such as Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) actually praised Fauci for refusing to answer questions before Congress.
There is no question that it is Fauci’s right to refuse to invoke his privilege against self-incrimination and many advised him to do so. It could be taken for strategic reasons separate from any criminal culpability. After all, he was given a last-minute pardon by President Joe Biden, and any false statements he made before the Committee could be used to bring criminal charges against him.
However, Fauci is unlike many who have invoked the privilege. While many past witnesses have invoked the privilege in being called to Congress, Fauci has testified for days in countless prior hearings. He also has appeared in countless interviews on these issues. He had reason to fear this hearing after his diary revealed startling contradictions with what he was stating publicly.
The question many will ask is why Fauci could not just “stick with the science” and resolve these contradictions. The fact is that he would have had difficulty in dealing with his own “inconvenient truths.”
Fauci’s opening statement expressed obvious anger over the release of his “unredacted diary.”
The new evidence shows that Fauci connected the Wuhan lab to the emerging crisis before most people had ever heard of the lab. It also shows him repeatedly referencing the lab’s gain-of-function work and discounted the “wet market” as the true origin of the virus as opposed to an “amplifier.”
Some of the most embarrassing areas for Fauci concerned his entries acknowledging that he pushed to close schools, despite public denials that he ever recommended such closures. His entries take credit for convincing figures such as then-New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, the staff of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and others to close the schools.
In an Oct. 16, 2022, ABC interview, Fauci repeated that denial: “They always come back and say, ‘Fauci was responsible for shutting schools down.’ I had nothing to do [with it]!”
The media has also taken the Fifth on these subjects, declining to publish many of these contradictions. They have the same reason as Fauci: there are no spins that would reconcile their own prior coverage and gushing reviews of Fauci. The diary entries also show disturbing references to private meetings with media figures.
Fauci’s diary refers to CNN anchor Jake Tapper 41 times. In some entries, Fauci suggested that the host was concerned about crafting an interview to better serve Fauci: “Jake wanted to make sure the interview did not cause me any problems.” Fauci also related how he met socially with Tapper in July 2020: “Had dinner over Jake Tapper and Jen Tapper’s home in DC. Terrific couple. Friendship building.” (Notably, on October 14, 2020, CNN published a report repeating the condemnation of the dangers of “small household gatherings.”).
The diary revealed an obsession with his publicity and access to celebrities. The diary is replete with his gushing accounts of himself, such as “It is not hyoperbole [sic] to say that today I am the most famous and talked about person in the country and one of the most recognizable peson [sic] in the world.”
The fact is that diaries tend to be self-obsessed, and no one would want their unvarnished private thoughts made public. Rather, my gripe with these passages is something I have previously written in criticism of Fauci. During this period, dissenting scientists were barred from social media, removed from positions, and vilified for expressing views, despite now being vindicated on subjects ranging from the lab origin of the virus, the efficacy of masks, the six-foot rule, natural immunities, and school closures.
As these courageous scientists were being abused (by academic and media figures who still hold their positions), Fauci said not a word in their defense despite privately acknowledging that they could be right.
Yet, Fauci remained silent as his allies in the media savaged those who voiced the view that the virus was man-made and escaped from the lab.
In 2021, New York Times science and health reporter Apoorva Mandavilli was still calling on reporters not to mention the “racist” lab theory. (Federal agencies found the lab theory to be the most credible despite Fauci claiming publicly that a natural origin was the most likely explanation).
Fauci stayed silent while relishing his celebrity status. Indeed, his diary shows no concerns for these scientists as he breathlessly recounted his bobbleheads and cover shoots.
Once again, Fauci has every right to invoke his constitutional rights, but the public has every right to demand answers to these questions related to the deaths of 1,238,563 Americans. That may result in a grant of immunity to compel him to answer these questions.
If it is any solace for Fauci, he will clearly be able to maintain that he is “the most famous and talked about person in the country.”
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the New York Times best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”
Anybody got standing to pursue a civil suit against this guy for injury for resulting from taking the vac, or from things he said about his colleagues who disagreed with his public statements about COVID or it’s source, or the vac, or from making cash awards to him. Or any other example from his diary showing he made knowingly false statements about people, Covid, its source, or vac? Surely a pardon doesn’t cover civil liability for making injurious and knowingly false statements. Let’s get him on the stand in a civil trial. Even if he refuses to speaking in his defense, let’s see who will, and let a jury decide.
Dr. Fauci joins Dr. Mengele in infamy. What an evil megalomaniac.
once he is granted immunity about the conduct he is being questioned about, he can no longer take the 5th
Biden’s pardon gave him that immunity (at the federal level, which is all that the federal government can grant in any case)
so he did not have the constitutional right to remain silent.
He had the right to remain silent. You can still invoke the 5th if he has reason to believe he can be prosecuted. Since Sen. Paul is using his dairy to ask questions that would contradict his past statements under oath it would be considered perjury. Because he CAN be prosecuted for perjury if he answers Sen. Paul’s questions he absolutely can invoke his 5th amendment right to remain silent and not answer Sen. Paul’s questions. Sen. Paul knows this and it is the source of his frustration and anger. Because he cannot force Fauci to answer them and therefore he cannot “catch him committing perjury”.
Invoking the 5th is the absolute right legal strategy for Fauci.
I have heard three arguments as to why he can plead the fifth notwithstanding the pardon:
1. The pardon doesn’t cover anything after Jan 20, 2025. This is a weak argument. The questions can be limited to the period covered by the pardon. And to plead the fifth because Fauci might be prosecuted for lying to Congress in his answers is an absurdity; on that basis anyone could plead the fifth at any time.
2. He might be prosecuted by states under state law because the pardon only covers federal crimes. But as Mike Davis has argued, no state can prosecute a federal official for conduct in his official capacity. All the questions here relate to Fauci’s official conduct.
3. The pardon may be invalid. This is unlikely.
These issues would presumably have to be resolved if Fauci is prosecuted for contempt and raises these arguments in his defense.
In the winter of 2019, Trump largely ignored the pandemic in Asia.
In the Spring of 2020, Trump suggesting possibly drinking or injecting yourself with industrial bleach cleaner. This led to a panic among bleach manufacturers telling Americans NOT to drink or inject oneself with bleach cleaner.
Then Trump suggested the hot summer weather in 2020 would fix the pandemic.
Since Trump didn’t have a medical degree (like Fauci’s decades of experience), Trump’s inaction and dereliction of duty nearly stopped the American economy. No customers in restaurants, hotels, airlines and few Americans were commuting to work.
Since Trump nearly stopped the economy through inaction, Biden and Congress with the best of intentions had to financially fund the American economy. The risk was a worldwide Great Depression worst than the early 1900’s.
You can criticize any president or politician for intentional dereliction of duty, but both Fauci and Biden made an honest effort to save lives and prevent a Great Depression. Trump never made an honest effort, he ignored the experts.
Then Trump and MAGA voters criticized Biden trying to fix the mess Trump made by putting too much cash into the economy.
Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it…..
“In the Spring of 2020, Trump suggesting possibly drinking or injecting yourself with industrial bleach cleaner.”
False story created by the evil press. Same MO as the press’s Charlottesville lies.
IIRC Trump was referring to a study that used some type of sanitizer to kill virus that had attached itself to the linings of airways.
The press has become the enemy of the American people
While the optics for Fauci are undeniably poor, invoking his Fifth Amendment right is the correct legal strategy. As Professor Turley pointed out, Fauci has legitimate reason to fear prosecution, particularly since Senator Paul is using Fauci’s diary in an attempt to entrap him into perjury. While Congress could grant immunity, the public has largely moved on from the pandemic. Instead, this probe serves as a political distraction from pressing issues like the economy and the conflict with Iran, fueled primarily by Paul’s fixation on targeting Fauci. Ultimately, any legal challenge to Fauci’s Fifth Amendment defense is bound to fail.
An autopen blanket pardon covering a range of years and not specifying a crime seems far out of bounds. I always though a pardon followed a sentence. Fauci’s pardon needs to become part of a test case.
And Trump says he’ll honor Fauci’s pardon. Why would he surrender without a fight?
Sickness abounds.
He was doing the best he could. It was a new and very deadly virus and if he was to err, he wanted to err on the side of caution. Many theories were kicked around. Scientists change their minds. His instinct to encourage wearing masks was healthy, saving who knows how many lives, and the 6 foot rule didn’t hurt anyone. Masks worn in restaurants were less effective because people had to expose themselves to the virus every-time they took a bite. He is blamed for the tragic deaths of over a million Americans and, at the same time, damned for not doing more.
Everyone in America stuck doing a job that doesn’t inspire awe by the public would be just as smitten with the publicity he got and the celebrities he met. Trust me.
He did not know everything that went on. He blindly assigned work projects recommended by trusted assistants whose job it was to advise him. Tens of thousands of projects required his okay. No one knows to this day how the hell that virus started. Viruses are more than tricky, They are, right now, mutating millions of times a second. They prowl night and day seeking ways to adapt so they can kill us. This is the Age of the Virus, and we ain’t seen nothin yet, baby. They are so close to being alive. They are more than genius and clever in their pursuit of our destruction. Yours and mine.
Are you a relative of his, a secrete lover, or a paid PR agency?
You are correct, no one was perfect or knew without doubt … but we were told to trust the science, embodied by one person.
The “science” didn’t exist. This sucker flew in like a tornado on no one’s radar. It was baffling. The trials testing vaccines DID met proper testing procedures, They algorithmed their way into testing with just as much accuracy in much less time. Every second ticked by with more slain by this microscopic hatchet. The science? How many scientific theories came and went, He was trying to save lives. Even Turley is clueless about the nature of modern viruses. And this kind of pandemic based on novel viruses will destroy billions of people in the near future.
Indeed math and science are lost on Americans
As I understand it, a contempt resolution needs 60 votes for cloture to pass the Senate. In other words, nothing is going to happen to Fauci, as all the Democrats will protect him. This is all grandstanding.
I think it’s by majority vote.
Almost all of the Republican members of Congress vaccinated their entire families and then went back for follow-up vaccine boosters – all thanks to Dr. Fauci’s top priority of saving lives.
So you have a bunch of partisan cowardly members of Congress that benefited from Fauci’s vaccine project, attacking a non-partisan professional doctor with a backbone simply trying to save lives.
Your preacher calls this “bearing false witness”!
Fauci is certainly a disgusting animal, but one who worked with others animals of a worse type. Not every Democrat believed that feeble “wet market” cause when an error-prone virology lab (Wuhan) was just a few blocks away. But those other animals had a different agenda: to get Americans to follow lunatic and draconian restrictions without question.
They certainly didn’t mind Fauci turning into an egotistical monster; they loved it. If and when errors were discovered, Fauci would be the fall guy – and now he is precisely that. They wanted power, and next to the gun, obedience is the prime pathway. They didn’t mind that countless people died and even more lost their livelihoods for non compliance with mandates. Even when errors popped up, they didn’t demand more rigor from their scientists, allowing the continuation of arbitrary rules and specious reasoning to rain down rules on everyone. Give Biden and company a cheer for enabling all this.
That person IS A CRIMINAL. He has BLOOD ON HIS HANDS. I want to see him PROSECUTED!!! 🤬
🙏🏼❤️🤍💙🙏🏼
ON a lighter note—my CIVIL RIGHTS were UPHELD today in the #SantaBarbara County Superior Court by Judge Sydney Bennet, who performed a lot of work and quoted a bunch of caselaw to overturn an unlawful arrest of me—made because we have a DIRTY Police Captain in Lompoc, CA! Yeppers… we have a dirty Police Captain who never should have taken an oath because I found out he is a RAPIST and a MURDERER! No joke. This is real. And I will go to another hearing in a couple weeks to find out how the old brass in the Court respects my Rights. Judge Rigali… has a verrrry checkered past, but I know, they do not make errors when they understand they are being exposed.
God bless our Country!
Here is my latest episode: https://youtu.be/EPvVf71qusk?is=o6CuxHI9EU4xwXI9
Thank you for your life’s work. You, and Susan Bassi in #California, are my mentors.
🙏🏼❤️🤍💙🙏🏼
Criminal? He’s been convicted right?
My comment is not about Doctor Fauci, who’s words speak for themselves. It’s about asking any decent, law abiding democrats how they remain one? Everything the left does is tainted with lies, misrepresentations, shameful conduct, arrogance and hatred of our country.
PARODY: Anthony Fauci Named Head of Medical Ethics at Harvard, Cites Decades of Hands-On Experience Navigating the Truth
Harvard Medical School announced today it has appointed Dr. Anthony Fauci to lead its newly reimagined Department of Medical Ethics, praising his unmatched ability to hold two contradictory positions simultaneously without breaking eye contact.
Dr. Fauci brings a rare skill set, said the search committee chair. He’s the only candidate who can teach both ‘informed consent’ and ‘plausible deniability’ in the same syllabus.
The new curriculum reportedly includes a semester-long seminar titled Diary Keeping for Public Officials: What to Write Down and What to Deny Later, along with a capstone course on The Fifth Amendment as a Teaching Tool.
Fauci is expected to invoke academic privilege the first time a student asks a follow-up question.
Stupid comment.
That is either a prediction of what you’ll say next, or a headline for your body of work on this blog, or the title of your autobiography.
Yours is.
We have to laugh, so we can keep from crying. Thank you, Olly.
Thanks Stephen, but here’s the part that’s not funny. Watch who’s cheering Fauci for dodging. That’s not really about him. That’s every one of them showing you exactly how they’ll act the day it’s their turn in that chair. Self-government only works if accountability’s real no matter who’s sitting in it.
Every time somebody defends the dodge because it’s their team, that trust takes another hit. That’s the actual damage here. Not one man’s ethics. It’s a preview of how the people running things plan to handle getting caught.
Outstanding.
Constitutional due process begins from the premise “Innocent until PROVEN guilty”. Each member of Congress and every president swears an oath of office to follow constitutional due process – the “means” to reach an end result.
Trump and his allies in Congress started with the opposite premise, publicly stating to put Fauci in prison (end result) but by skipping the constitutional due process. This is a foreign model of governing, not found in the U.S. Constitution or Declaration of Independence.
If you support 2nd Amendment constitutional due process to protect gun owners, you also support the entire constitutional system which grants “Innocence until PROVEN guilty” (4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 14th Amendments).
It is a federal crime (that can result in prison time) to use one’s government authority to illegally punish political opponents. If the U.S. Department of Justice were operating properly, Todd Blanche would appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate and indict our 34 time felon president for violating the Hatch Act, Privacy Act and other crimes.
Todd Blanche should be disbarred from practicing law if he refuses to appoint a special prosecutor over vindictive prosecutions and extrajudicial punishments – no authority any American official has ever had.
Since Fauci was denied constitutional due process by disloyal members of Congress and a disloyal president, his attorney advised him to invoke his 5th Amendment rights. By contrast, 34 time felon Donald Trump was granted full constitutional due process since his first felony conviction by citizen juries.
If Blanche is loyal to his oath of office and his legal bar association, it’s likely Trump will invoke the 5th Amendment in a future criminal indictment.
You’re all over the map anon. Calm down, take a breath, try again.
How does a Congressional inquiry violate due process.
What stands out to me is that this betrayal of public trust and the resulting damage was made possible by the near monolithic alliance of media and the left. We are where we are today with our foundational principles and institutions under open assault because most of the print and broadcast media failed in their mandate to hold all accountable. Power without accountability naturally becomes corrupt, overbearing and a threat to the public welfare. The First Amendment was intended to protect the public from government not the other way around.
“. . . Fauci to remain silent on the questions raised by his diary.”
You don’t need his cringe-worthy diary to see the obvious: He’s a megalomaniac addicted to fame.
He’s the revolting type that always oozes to the surface when there’s a union of government and science.
How many times has that oozing taken place in US history?
The villains of this era are journalists. The people and organizations who became advocates and activists without turning in their press badges or hats.
From the Russian collusion hoax, to the impeachment theater, Hunter’s laptop, COVID and Fauci, Biden’s mental state, Law-fare, to name just a few instances – and they all point in one political direction – to disempower Trump and his agenda whatever it is.
Covid is the most non-partisan topic of the bunch, but became partisan just by existing in this era.
This shameful era of journalistic advocacy continues with the intentionally sparse reporting on Fauci and this week’s hearing.
It is quite clear that Mr. Fauci and his lavish Law Firm have little confidence in the Autopen Pardon issued by the Pardon Czar. If Mr. Fauci’s involvement in the development, release, treatment modalities, “Vaccine” development and anti-Constitutional edicts were ever fully investigated and published, he would be the Face of Human experiments gone wrong!!!! In my humble opinion based on the current evidence, this man along with his political and media comrades attempted a Global One World takedown of Democracy. He almost succeeded…………
As its been said previously in the press, to get Fauci, his previous public testimony will be used against him.
AS for that take-down, it was a test run for a Chinese biological attack on … Fauci had to know that.
Pardons are not prospective.
Did you order the Code Red? DID YOU ORDER THE CODE RED!?!?!?!
A public hanging in front of the White House.
Tapper too.