As I wrote yesterday, Dr. Anthony Fauci was not the only one taking the Fifth yesterday on his record during the pandemic. The media effectively invoked the same privilege to avoid self-incrimination for their years of deifying the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Across the cable networks, hosts and guests were going into vapors as Republican senators pummelled Fauci over his COVID policies and the glaring contradictions found in his diary entries. Some, like Dr. Scott Ratzan, echoed Fauci’s own prior claim that any questioning of his judgment was an attack on science.
Once again, Fauci had every right to invoke his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. That does not mean that it was the right thing to do. Fauci already had a pardon that notably extended back to 2014 when his agency approved gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab in China. Any prosecution would be difficult in light of the pardon. It would not be impossible since he could be charged with perjury for any false statements. Yet, that was the same threat that existed during countless prior hearings for Fauci.
So what was the difference now? The answer is found in diary entries and other evidence that contradicts Fauci’s public statements on subjects ranging from the lab theory to school closures. It is not that Fauci would have been tripped into false answers but that he did not have any obvious answers to some of these criticisms.
Instead, Fauci invoked the privilege 111 times. That fell short of Vito Genovese’s record, who invoked the privilege 150 times.
Rather than address the long list of criticisms and contradictions for Fauci, the media rallied around the scientist. Fauci was portrayed as something akin to the St. Sebastian of Science, taking barbs and arrows for his faith. It did not matter that over 1.2 million people died, an economy shut down, and millions of children were prevented from attending school based on these alleged errors. Fauci would remain silent rather than risk being charged with false testimony.
On CNN, Dr. Scott Ratzan repeated Fauci’s much-maligned claim in June 2021 that “attacks on me, quite frankly, are attacks on science.” Yesterday, Ratzan declared: “This is an assault on science and scientists, and unfortunately, Dr. Fauci is in that seat. 38 years of service to the country, one of the best-known scientists for infectious disease, unfortunately, has taken a lot of heat…”
It was a maddening statement, repeated by many, that treated Fauci as inviolate, if not infallible. Fauci was wrong about issues that produced tragic costs for this country. When confronted about policies such as school closures, he insisted he had never recommended them while privately admitting he had.
Fauci owes the public explanations, including millions who lost loved ones. Instead, he refused to take the risk of being accused of perjury.
Fauci is no Sebastian. Notably, Sebastian remained silent in public to conceal his faith, but when discovered by Diocletian, he remained faithful. The price was to be shot through with arrows, but he somehow survived. After being nursed back to health by Irene of Rome, he immediately confronted Diocletian in public and denounced his abuses. For that act he was beaten to death with clubs and tossed into a sewer.
Fauci spoke endlessly in public and remained silent only when asked to address the contradictions in his diaries and the costs of his alleged errors.
What is also frustrating for many is the reappearance of figures who toed the line on prior narratives about masks, the virus’s origin, and other issues. They are now claiming victimization in being asked to account for evidence that they were wrong. As Dr. Scott Atlas has laid out, many of those who abused dissenting scientists faced no repercussions after those scientists were largely vindicated in later research.
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 immunity, and school closures.
Many previously echoed Fauci’s view that questioning these conclusions was an attack on science. One leading columnist wrote a piece titled “The COVID lab leak claim isn’t just an attack on science, but a threat to public health.”
When courageous scientists put their careers at risk (and some lost their positions) to voice their opposition to Fauci’s policies, neither he nor these acolytes said a thing in their defense. Fauci did not defend them as fighting for science and the need to challenge orthodoxy. When their views were later embraced, they received no apologies, let alone restoration.
For my part, I am not interested in hearing from scientists who remained silent as their counterparts were vilified, shadow-banned, and fired. Their deep faith in science did not prompt them to defend those with opposing views even though orthodoxy is the very antithesis of scientific thought.
Again, Fauci has every right to remain silent, but that does not make it right.
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.”
I will never stop referring to covid and its response, given its global nature, as the most heinous crime against humanity in history. We are at the point where every aspect of the modern left’s platform is also such a crime. We are still very much standing on the edge of a knife, and today’s companion piece shows clearly they have no intentions of relenting.
Thanks Jonathan. Your commentaries are broadening from legal or legal related to a range of issues. And you are doing it very well, in my opinion. Please keep it up, though undoubtedly you are paying a price through uncivil criticisms from the left.
Sometimes the best solution isn’t very exciting. Voters of all political parties would greatly benefit from “Rank Choice Open Primary Elections”.
Instead of multiple primary elections, have just one primary for both parties and all voters to rank all candidates from favorite to least favorite. If nobody receives more than 50% of the open primary vote, you drop off the least popular candidate and repeat until the candidate with more than 50% wins.
This would minimize the extreme wings if both parties and pick better candidates most voters would support.
Ah, the process by which the competent yet irascible Pete Stark was replaced with the Eric Swalwell mediocrity. Being elected Congressman gave Fartswell the confidence he needed to become a sexual predator.
Another example of mediocrity rising to the top was Oakland Mayor Jean Quan. A talented but polarizing candidate almost won outright, but as the counting went on the barely competent — but bland and inoffensive — Quan won
The policy prescriptions to Covid were NOT based in science. The “six foot” rule was made up. Fauci himself said wearing the silly paper masks were not effective at reducing transmission. And on and on.
From an even broader perspective, other countries that presume to love science more than anything – such as Scandinavia – implemented public policy responses very different from the policies implemented in the US marketed as based on “Science”.
You are absolutely correct about those silly masks.
The idea that masks prevent transmission of infectious disease is absurd.
Surgeons should be banned from wearing those silly masks while performing surgery. And why bother with all those stupid sterile gowns that they wear.
If the government is not willing to ban the use of those silly masks by surgeons, then I strongly suggest that the next time you have a surgical procedure you should demand that the surgeon not wear a mask.
What the really crazy thing was in the state I was living in was that you had to wear a mask on the golf course.
You don’t believe there is a difference between doctors wearing masks while performing surgery and forcing a four year-old to wear one all day in pre-school?
If masks do not prevent transmission of infectious disease then there is absolutely no reason for surgeons OR 4 year olds to wear masks.
If masks do not prevent transmission of infectious disease, then kindly explain why surgeons should wear them.
“If masks do not prevent transmission of infectious disease . . .”
You have a child’s grasp of microbiology.
Hint: Size matters.
Size of what ??????
The microorganisms.
Or did you not know that they come in wildly varying sizes?
I am afraid that it is you that has a child’s grasp of microbiology.
Transmission of respiratory viruses occurs in droplets of saliva and respiratory secretions. They are not excreted by the body in a pure form. Masks are designed to stop the transmission of droplets of secretions containing the virus, or indeed any pathogen whether viral or bacterial.
That is why surgeons wear masks, because even normal breathing produces droplets of secretions, and the mouth and upper respiratory tract is always full of microorganisms that have the potential to cause infections.
That is what Sam said.
Anyone whom has taken a high school biology class knew exactly what Sam was saying.
In your lame attempt to insult Sam, only proved what he was saying.
So there’s no such thing as “virus respiratory aerosol?”
I think you’ve discovered a new branch of virology — based on a rejection of virology.
While a virus is small, the virus is not aerosolized, but rides on relatively giant particles of mucus and saliva. There are famous photographs capturing the blast of liquids that accompany a sneeze. Try blowing out a candle while wearing a mask. In addition, the better masks carry an electrical charge that works to attract particles regardless of size. This charge is depleted with wear, which is why the masks need to be changed.
In addition the mask slows the exit velocity. In free air the virus is incredibly vulnerable. It depends on a moist human interior to keep going. The slower it goes the less time it has to colonize a new host. Try to blow out a candle while wearing a mask and you can see the reduction in speed that reduces the distance at which covid can colonize another person.
“. . . the virus is not aerosolized . . .”
Virus respiratory aerosol is a well-establish scientific fact.
Back to your sandbox.
Surgeons wear masks to protect themselves.
“Surgeons should be banned from wearing those silly masks . . .”
Demagogues bank on public ignorance.
When performing surgery on a patient with Covid, surgeons do *not* wear “those silly [cloth] masks (that Fauci forced us — including children — to wear).
They wear a surgical N95 respirator.
“They wear a surgical N95 respirator.”
In situations during the “pandemic” when I could not avoid wearing a mask, I wore an N95. It wasn’t labeled “surgical” but it did meet the filtration specification. I don’t know if some of those discussing masks here have forgotten one of the truly ridiculous and absurd spectacles that were involved, but I am going to remind you. That was going to the grocery store under a mask mandate, only to see that most of the people there (employees, as well as customers) were wearing masks improvised from scarfs, or cheesecloth, or wearing paper masks that were pulled down so it did not cover the nose. Even if the lie that masks protected against virus propigation had been true, treating those half-assed measures as if they were the same would have negated the entire value of the mandate. Just more anecdotal evidence that the true objective had nothing to do with control of disease, it was entirely about complete authoritarian control of people. Which is clearly the actual aspiration of the buffoon troll here trying to defend the mask mandate.
It was understood by “Science” early in the Covid scare that the silly cloth masks are ineffective against preventing the spread of respiratory viruses. The virus that is contained in respiratory droplets is smaller than the mesh. It easily passes right through. Again, that’s “Science”, as Fauci explained.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6pEcgDmEUk
Later, the Cochrane Library published a review in January, 2023 based on 78 high-quality scientific studies, with more than 610,000 participants, that concluded the silly cloth masks were useless in stopping transmission of the virus.
https://www.cochrane.org/evidence/CD006207_do-physical-measures-such-hand-washing-or-wearing-masks-stop-or-slow-down-spread-respiratory-viruses
You might consider dropping the idiotic, smug, sarcasm before you open your pie hole and make a complete fool of yourself.
“It was understood by . . .”
Thanks for adding that. I had forgotten about those studies.
But I do remember this analogy:
Wearing those “silly masks” is like trying to keep mosquitoes out of your yard by erecting a chain-link fence.
Sam remember when they told us. If you don’t have a mask. Pull your T-shirt over your nose and mouth… Nuts
GENIUS
P-95 masks were critical as life saving equipment. i know u believe our government had nothing better to do than to torment Americans
P 95 MASKS WERE EFFECTIVE, U IDIOT
If God wanted people to evolve mudflaps over their mouths, we would all look like that Davy Jones character from Pirates of the Caribbean.
The surgeon wears a mask to prevent infecting a patient, with, for example, droplets of spittle.
During the pandemic, we wore masks to prevent OUR INFECTION.
Doctor: disease sender
Population: disease recipient
Yes – when trapped in a burning building one must first wait for the fire to build to determine which way to run rather than doing what appears to be the best action at the time. Not that the six foot rule was ever followed – conservatives packed themselves like sardines and coughed on each other to prove that the virus was no worse than the flu.
Be sure not to walk near any open flame with that strawman argument. Stores marked floors with the six foot spacings. There was no crowding unless inadvertent.
did more conservatives get COVID than liberals? Certainly not in NY
Any proof.
Ano
Not that the six foot rule was ever followed
____________________________
O-yes they did. Food stores put arrows on the floor so you have only one way traffic. And shoe marks on the floor to keep you 6ft apart.
Plus they hung a sheet of plastic from the ceiling to keep you and the check out clerk separated.
Digusting to attempt to discredit monts of research about responsibiities or millions of dsths.
digusting? monts? responsibiitires?/ dsths?? learn how to spell ANON!!
There is no news anymore. When I use brave for search, it provdes a binary choice; News from the left, News from the right. There is no ‘just news’, it’s tailored to “what to do you want to hear”.
OT:
Boy is Spain lucky or what, they just picked up 46,000 new health care workers in about a week. All healthy, strong males between the ages of 18-40. How fortunate for the Spaniards.
This is what the DSA means when they say they want to abolish ICE and the border.
The bigger issue here is that government leaders – of both parties – hate their Oath of Office employment contract. To operate within the legal boundaries of the U.S. Constitution. Both sides support censorship that violates the First Amendment and both sides support a 25 year unconstitutional blacklisting program that is proven to harm the wrong people.
So now we have a race to the bottom. One side violates the U.S. Constitution, then the other side uses that illegal precedent for further law breaking instead of reforms to restore a constitutional rule of law.
All voters lose in this game, from illegal censorship to gun rights!
Absolutely true. The examples for the left are frequent, flagrant. foul, and need no repetition here, but unfortuately, it isn’t confined to them. The full-throated endorsement from GOP politicians like Ken Paxton of mandatory id requirements for access to web sites (citing the fiction of “protecting the children”) is no better.
Really can’t hate the Un-American media enough. I can’t help but assume every one of them is on china’s payroll.
“An assault on science” is exactly what they are doing. MAGAs don’t like being called out for their actions.
Sally you really can’t provide any more details than that can you? Just like fauci, you can’t tell the truth as it will harm you. Fauci is the most unscientific person ever. True science requires an intellect that can put away their ego in search of the truth. Fauci lied, people died.
People dying had nothing to do with Fauci and there are no facts that support that.
He’s the Creator of Covid-19. He funded gain-of-function research in Wuhan after it was banned in the U.S. It isn’t just about the panic reaction to the pandemic which led to mask mandates and abridgement of natural rights to assembly, religion, and speech, he’s the impresario who Created the Frankenvirus.
The funny part. It was Obama who had it banned in the USA.
“It was Obama who had it banned in the USA.”
Was that irony or strategy? It seems to me that it would have much more difficult to conceal the research here while it was happening.
It was Obama who had it banned in the USA.
Was that irony or strategy?
Unfortunately there is no answer that is based on facts and reality, that Sally and the other trolls will accept. Their hatred and ideology will not allow it.
No facts were presented. Trump has cut budgets and jobs from multiple science agencies for nothing but disagreement with his political goals.
And what does that have to do with the price of eggs in China, as my.mother would say?
What would you call Fauci and his friend Collins conspiracy to undermine and discredit The Great Barrington Deceleration, it’s authors?
It was in Fauci’s and Collin’s emails.
As it turned out, The Great Barrington Deceleration was more right than Fauci. At least what he said in public.
First, learn to construct a persuasive argument. Then get back to us.
A couple of vague claims won’t do
Vindictive investigations and indictments by constitutional officers are federal crimes. Chronology matters in American law and Old English law (which U.S. law is based).
The question should be is why no Trump officials have yet been indicted for violating the Hatch Act, Privacy Act and constitutional due process?
Those Trump officials being indicted by a Grand Jury should have happened first. In this context of lawlessness, Fauci’s attorneys advised him to cite a legal defense even a highly partisan U.S. Supreme Court would have to rule on.
Dude, the crazy media train AIN’T SLOWIN DOWN FOR NOBODY – NOT EVEN FOR “I LOVE MYSELF” TONY!!!!
Good essay, though I continue to doubt whether Fauci had the right to invoke the 5th.
The public lies newly revealed by the diary include:
1. Fauci knew on Jan 26 2020 that the virus did not originate in the Huanan wet market yet he soon after publicly asserted that it did.
2. On Feb 1 2020, Fauci knew that 10 of 12 leading virologists on his conference call believed it likely or possible that the virus was produced in the lab yet he consistently denied this and derided the lab leak as a conspiracy theory.
3. Fauci later denied that he ever recommended school closures, though the diary shows him bragging about persuading NYC and California leaders to do so.
The diary also shows how Fauci strong-armed Rachel Wallensky to approve boosters over ACIP’s 9-6 decision to the contrary.
This is all on top of his flip flops on masks, his support for the 6-foot rule without any basis, his advocacy for mandating a vaccine that did not prevent transmission or infection, his opposition to governors like DeSantis who sought to open society based on a better reading of the evidence and his efforts to destroy any scientists who disagreed with government policy.
Fauci was perhaps the most publicly influential official in the government’s failed COVID response. It is very unfortunate that he is being permitted to avoid explaining what he did.
Despite advocating for vaccine mandates, Fauci himself contracted Covid AFTER he’d not only been vaccinated, but also after receiving two “booster” shots.
The truth of vaccination is that it is not a Star Trek force field that turns on the instant the vaccine is administered. A vaccine acts to introduce a foreign substance into a person where that foreign substance is unable to reproduce in a dangerous way. It is up to the immune system to react to that foreign substance and build a molecular tag that is used to flag that foreign substance for removal. It’s not a guarantee that anyone’s immune system will notice or react. Part of the problem with infectious agents is that some of them are able to disguise themselves from the immune system. HIV, for example, is one of them.
If there is a vaccine that doesn’t activate the immune response, then it is merely a waste of time or cost and has no adverse effect, and the rate of deaths doesn’t change.
I have been vaccinated for a dozen diseases and never gotten any if them. In contrast, after six COVID jabs, I finally got COVID.
And you are alive
So ano.
You forget these words from the so call smart folks.
(Get the shot, you won’t get CV) (Get the shot and you won’t spread CV )
He’s alive
And of course there are his repeated false denials of funding GOF research at the lab. The diary confirms that he knew in early 2020 that GOF work was done there. And he confirmed internally at the same time that some of that work was funded by NIAID through EcoHealth. His claim to have used a narrower definition of GOF in his testimony may have saved him from perjury charges but does not alter the basic facts.
“And of course . . .”
Great list.
Add to that his public rejections of natural immunity. Which is a bizarre position for an infectious disease “expert.” Natural immunity was first documented 2,500 years ago in ancient Greece. In the modern era, awareness of natural immunity is the *foundation* of the science of virology.
Natural immunity = spin the cylinder in a revolver and play Russian Roulette and maybe you don’t die. Except in this case, maybe you kill someone else, a random stranger or a beloved family member.
No one wants to depend on natural immunity to stop Ebola; maybe Sam can go there and become a test case for that theory.
The stupidity of some Americans is frightening. The Chinese are overtaking our status as the number 1 world power and from the ridiculous comments of the anti-Fauci crowd, it makes sense.
Sam,
Good point about natural immunity.
Some people will have it. Others wont. Or will not to the point to be effective.
But the way Fauci, Democrats, leftists attacked the idea was over the top.
And the way the Biden admin spun it, if you didnt get the vaccine, you would die. If you got the vaccine, you would not get it and would not spread it to others. Like it was some kind of force field.
Stop lying about the representations about immunization–the following was true then and now: if you get the vaccine, you are less likely to get a severe case of COVID. Studies show that vaccinated people are far less likely to need hospitalization or be put on a ventilator. NO ONE said that it was impossible to get COVID if you were immunized.
Of course, all of this Dr. Fauci hooplah is a diversion away from Trump’s disasterous economy, the disasterous war he started and has no clue how to solve, the lies about the reflecting pool–“Judge” Jeannine Pirro said they had witnesses, who would testify “beyond a reasonable doubt” that they saw the Olympic canoeist tearing up the lining to the reflecting pool. She juiced up the alleged amount of damages to make the alleged crime a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Right before the DOJ was required to respond to a judge’s order about their evidence, instead of responding, charges were dropped with an admission that the cause was defective installation by the contractor who got a no-bid contract because of an alleged “emergency” to get the painting done.
You want to talk about lies. Did you forget all of the lies Trump told about this? Several times, in several speeches, he lied that someone cut a 350-ft long gash in the lining with a box cutter. Where are the witnesses? There are security cameras all over the place–where are the images? The Olympic canoeist was a convenient scapegoat to divert attention just like Dr. Fauci is a diversion away from Trump’s current scandals, such as the slush fund–Blanche refuses to put into the form of an enforceable contract that the slush fund and IRS immunity are being dropped–that’s because they are NOT being dropped. Trump wants to reward the insurrectionists by giving each of them $1 million of our tax dollars, and rewarding himself, his worthless children and his companies lifetime immunity from IRS audits and prosecutions. The outrageousness of this is obvious, so—what to do? Go after Dr. Fauci, portray him as a modern-day Dr. Mengele and try to get him behind bars. Turley as much as accused Dr. Fauci of starting the COVID pandemic, a theme echoed by Joni Ernst. And you MAGAs fall for it to the point of passionately defending the lies. That’s the effect of MAGA media, which is why the billionaire olgarchs set up those alternative “news” organizations.
Today, Trump doubled down on the “box cutter” lie and attacked Jeannine Pirro. Once he starts lying, he just can’t help himself–he keeps it going and going–his ego won’t allow him to back down, just like the Big Lie, just like trying to blame Dr. Fauci for his failures of leadership that produced the worst record for COVID deaths and infections for industrialized countries.
“President Donald Trump posted on Saturday that he disagrees with his own Justice Department’s findings that a flawed installation, not vandalism, caused the lining of the newly renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C., to peel.
“I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, on the Reflecting Pool,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform. “I don’t know what she was thinking? To me, it was a pure case of VANDALISM.”
In a court filing on Friday, Pirro and Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Spence asked a judge to drop the Trump administration’s case against David Hearn, 67, a former Olympian it had accused of vandalizing the pool, which has become a flashpoint over Trump’s efforts to remake Washington.
The renovated pool had quickly developed blooms of algae that tinted the water green, while pieces of the blue lining had peeled off.
Trump, facing criticism over the $14.7 million renovation, had repeatedly blamed the problems on vandals he alleged had intentionally sabotaged the project.
In their filing on Friday, federal prosecutors said the latest documents they received from the Department of the Interior “indicated a rushed and flawed installation process, with repeated failures of the lining during the installation process, and extensive peeling of the lining throughout the Reflecting Pool.”
Trump suggested that prosecutors overstated the effects of a bad installation. “There may have been some contractor difficulty, but the major damage was caused by VANDALS!” he wrote on Saturday.”
THIS is what you MAGAs worship–you should be embarrassed.
The diary confirms that he knew in early 2020 that GOF work was done there.
No Evidence
“1. Fauci knew on Jan 26 2020 that the virus did not originate in the Huanan wet market yet he soon after publicly asserted that it did.”
Show the exact quote from the original, unedited document, where Dr. Fauci states this exactly as you claim.
Look at the entry for January 26. He says explicitly that the first cases were in early December, and that he “knows” that they were unconnected to the wet market which he says was an amplifier not a source.
Daniel,
You are correct.
But if you dont provide the quote or source, the annony will claim you are a liar.
So, for the assist,
“It now appears using epi data and genomic data that the first infection was in early December and was not connected to the market.”
— Dr. Anthony Fauci, 26 January 2020.
Source: https://www.paul.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/2026.07.24_Tonys-Diary-Package.pdf
An opinion. No one knew and no one knows now for sure the origin. I think Fauci was hoping that funding research on ways to make the virus more deadly makes perfect sense. I met his mother. Rosemary’s Baby, baby
I wonder when the first movie about the time period will come out and if it will be an honest depiction of the the evil cockroach.
The significance of Iago’s final line in Othello, “Demand me nothing; what you know, you know. From this time forth I never will speak word” (5.2.347-348), lies in his resolute silence and refusal to explain his actions, despite the chaos he has caused. This silence maintains his control over the narrative and leaves others to grapple with the unresolved questions about his motives. Throughout the play, Iago manipulates and destroys lives without revealing his true intentions, and his final words encapsulate his ultimate control and detachment from the devastation he orchestrated.
Those who refuse to ask questions when the body politic needs them to should not assault those who do their jobs for them.
“A man’s admiration for absolute government is proportionate to the contempt he feels for those around him.”
— Alexis de Tocqueville
Fauci’s legacy should be crafted by consolidating and publishing literally everything about his history, his actions, his statements, his finances and his notorious diary. Put it all out there. His history with Wuhan and the CCP. His lies. The obfuscation and his horrific failures. Everything. Literally, everything. Let it serve as a talking point for eternity. An epitaph for a monster.
Read The Real Anthony Fauci by RFK, Jr.
I’m surprised by anyone who pays any attention to the mainstream media or their chosen experts. Nobel prize winner in economics Paul Krugman told us Trump’s election in 2016 would crash the stock market. Nobel Peace Prize winner Barack Obama told us it was unconstitutional to bomb nations that did not pose an immediate threat to us. LOL
Well said
Someone should tell the Media that Fauci is beyond redemption or rehabilitation. So many have died, unjustly accused, lost their livelihoods, denied education, and damaged by the vaccination itself, that nothing can work. Helping Fauci is now beyond Hollywood, his party, influencers, and the Media. This last gasp to help will have no legs. The evidence against Fauci is simply overwhelming.
Fauci & his Team committed crimes against humanity and they should all be tried by a Military Tribunal.