Dr. Anthony S. Fauci is falling ever-deeper into quicksand.
Unfortunately for him, he’s only 5’7”.
This morning, the Senate Homeland Security committee headed by Rand Paul (R-KY) voted 8-7 to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress for his refusal to testify about the likelihood Covid leaked from a Chinese lab — or anything else. The vote does not mean Fauci will face a criminal prosecution, but it is the first step.
Today’s subcommittee vote has overshadowed arguably even more important news from last night, when Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) disclosed his own Senate subcommittee had obtained a copy of Fauci’s government-issued iPhone from the Department of Health and Human Services.
What’s on that phone?
Investigators have already discovered Fauci abundantly used a Gmail account and Slack channels, at least in part to avoid Freedom of Information Act requests into his official government email account. And Fauci’s “diary,” which Paul released 11 days ago, revealed he was obsessed with his own fame even as he encouraged lockdowns and other devastating and ineffective efforts to stop Covid.
At a minimum, the phone likely to embarrass Fauci further by revealing his fawning contacts with celebrities (and Washington journalists).
They could be far worse. Fauci’s diary has revealed his limitations as a scientist, as well as inconsistencies in his public statements about a lab leak, Covid’s dangers, and Covid vaccine effectiveness. Does the phone contain similar, or worse, tidbits?
Only Fauci knows. (It is possible even he doesn’t. Do you know what’s on your phone from 2020?)
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(I’ll never stop chasing the truth. And I need your help.)
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Fauci now faces the kind of legal jeopardy that may bankrupt him even if it doesn’t put him in prison.
And I know some, perhaps most, Unreported Truths readers believe he belongs in prison.
I disagree. (Audience capture begone!) Prison is a sideshow.
Fauci is 85 years old. A sizeable minority of Americans (maybe even a small majority) still view him as a hero. The evidence that he feared Covid leaked from a lab is real, but fragmentary. Unless investigators unearth more compelling evidence than they have, his defenders will call a prosecution politically motivated and vindictive — as they already are. A conviction is even less likely. Fauci would have to be tried in Washington, D.C., among the bluest districts in the United States.
What the United States need, desperately, is an honest conversation about Covid — one where Fauci acknowledges his private thoughts didn’t always match his public statements, admits the mRNA jabs did not perform nearly as advertised and had side effects we still don’t fully understand, and apologizes for being overly concerned about his own fame and failing to understand the human costs of the lockdowns and school closures he pushed.
Would Fauci ever be willing to testify honestly that way? To face his failings?
Of course not.
But by holding the sword of criminal investigation and prosecution over his head, Paul is giving him an out. Fauci and his defenders can say he cannot give up the legal shield of the Fifth Amendment because Paul or Republican state attorneys general will try to prosecute him for even minor missteps in his testimony.
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(Tony, in happier times!)
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A promise of immunity would end that game, and force Fauci to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
So help him God.
No, he still won’t take such an offer. (He’ll have some excuse, like claiming he could still be prosecuted locally.) But his refusal to do so would, once again, show the world who he really is.
If we can’t get to the truth, let’s at least be clear on who is stonewalling.
I think the worse part is that 7 (democrat) members of the committee voted against the motion. That’s the issue right there: 50% of our population don’t want to know the truth and see it as being disadvantageous to them politically.
Why not go after Dr Deborah Birx? She does not have a pardon. While not Fauci, she was a major player and would still have a lot of useful behind-the-scenes information.