A key Senate committee voted Thursday morning to hold Anthony Fauci in contempt for repeatedly refusing to answer questions about his handling of the COVID pandemic.
The Senate Homeland Security Committee, led by Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), voted 8-7 to adopt a resolution from the Kentucky Republican holding Fauci in contempt. All Republicans voted in favor and all Democrats voted against. Fauci pleaded the Fifth more than 100 times after he was called in to give testimony last week on coronavirus funding at the Wuhan lab in China and the government response to the pandemic.
“We are 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,” Paul said. “All that was required from Anthony Fauci last week was to tell the truth. He had no liability if he told the truth.”
“More than a million Americans died from COVID. 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 added.
READ IT: Every Page Of Fauci’s Tell-All Diary
Paul told The Daily Wire on Wednesday that he planned to send a criminal referral to the Justice Department after his resolution passed committee.
“Historically, votes like this have gone to the full Senate, but I think there’s no absolute rule that says we can’t send it directly to the Department of Justice,” Paul said. “So my plan is that if we win the vote on Thursday, to immediately send it to the Department of Justice with a recommendation for prosecution, even if it passes the whole Senate.”
If convicted of contempt of Congress, Fauci could be fined up to $100,000 and sentenced to up to one year in prison. During the Biden administration, Trump allies Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro were sentenced to prison after being held in contempt of Congress.
President Joe Biden issued a last-minute pardon to Fauci for his conduct during COVID just hours before he left office.
Before the vote, Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) claimed that holding Fauci in contempt would “harm our ability to conduct future investigations and disregard constitutional protections long recognized by the U.S. Senate.” He also said he would oppose Paul sending the criminal referral without approval from the full Senate.
Democrats repeatedly failed to get motions passed to delay the vote on the contempt resolution.
As part of Paul’s investigation into Fauci, the committee obtained and released his diaries, which were maintained on government servers. The committee also obtained Fauci’s phone records from the Department of Health and Human Services.
.png)
.png)
