Anthony Fauci should be charged with lying to Congress and destroying records, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, said during an appearance on Breitbart News Daily.
The committee last week voted to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress after the former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases chief pleaded the Fifth over 100 times during his testimony, refusing to answer a single question from lawmakers despite his pardon from former President Joe Biden’s administration and his opening statement.
“Ok so Anthony Fauci, great. He’s arrogant. He’s a narcissist. He’s obsessed with his own fame. He likes to give Julia Roberts a thrill, and he doesn’t have the humility. Ok, none of that’s a crime,” host Mike Slater said.
Paul said Fauci’s crimes are “very specific and fairly narrow.”
“There are two crimes I think that he could be charged with. One is lying to Congress, which is a felony, and the other is destroying records, which is a felony,” he explained, noting that both are covered by Biden’s pardon, so it would be hard to get it. However, contempt of Congress is not covered by the pardon.
“One crime that isn’t covered by the pardon is contempt of Congress, and you’ll recall that they went after several loyalists of President Trump, and they actually put a couple of them in jail for contempt of Congress,” Paul said, Peter Navarro being one of the most famous examples.
They refused to testify, Paul noted, surmising that judges are “more hardcore on people who absolutely refuse to testify.”
“So it is a little different. I think that’s why he chose to come in. We wondered whether he would come in or whether he would testify. I think he came in because I think they felt like the law was pretty solid. If you didn’t show up at all, that you would, you know, you could be convicted of contempt and get time in prison,” he said, although Paul believes Fauci still has the possibility of being convicted of contempt of Congress.
“This hasn’t really been explored a lot. Although there is some legal precedent, is that when you have a pardon, you know, you’ve essentially been granted immunity. Can you really plead the Fifth? Is a Fifth appropriate? And the judge, eventually, if they take this to court, will have to make this decision,” the Kentucky senator said.
“The court, I think, leans strongly towards allowing the Fifth Amendment. It’s allowed for a lot of people in a lot of circumstances, but this is a special one where he’s already been granted immunity,” he said, adding that what the court will do remains largely unknown due to these special circumstances.
“There are some Supreme Court precedents for not allowing him to plead the Fifth when you’ve been pardoned, other people have said to me, ‘Why don’t you just give him immunity? Why don’t you let us let him come in and have immunity?’ Well, the only immunity he lacks right now is lying. If I give him immunity to lie to me, why would I bring him in and let him lie? You know, so I can’t really grant him the immunity to lie. That’s the only thing, the only sort of, you know, power of the law that would would push him versus telling the truth,” Paul added.
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