House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan says Republicans are building their case against Anthony Fauci, the former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
“So, specifically before your committee and also before Rand Paul over in the Senate, Dr. Fauci has, of course, absolved himself of all funding of gain-of-function,” conservative podcaster Benny Johnson said in an interview with Jordan. “He said he didn’t know anything about it. It is verifiable and demonstrable that he lied. Now, there are codes in Congress. I have a code right here, 18 U.S. Code 1001.”
“Statements—false statements to Congress,” Johnson noted. “Says you can be imprisoned; says you can be imprisoned for eight years if you lie to Congress. It seems like there has never been a more clear-cut case of some individual lying to Congress.”
“Yeah, we can do it—there could be a referral, but you would refer to the Biden Justice Department,” Jordan responded. “I don’t know that — they’re going to pursue that, but you can do that. You could have one of the committees, and the Senate Judiciary Committee could make a referral. I doubt they will with the Democrats in charge.”
“We could do a referral potentially,” the Ohio Republican continued. “I would, frankly, prefer just to have Dr. Fauci come back in and take another round of questions here, but we’re building the case. You know, like, we had Dr. Redfield testify, and Chairman Wenstrup did. I thought he was—I thought he was great. As were the other witnesses that were brought in.”
Fauci claims that, because the GOP has called for his prosecution, he has received death threats.
“I mean, they don’t like to have me getting death threats all the time. Every time someone gets up and spouts some nonsense that’s misinformation, disinformation, and outright lies, somebody somewhere decides they want to harm me and/or my family,” he said. “That’s the part of it that is unfortunate.”
“The rest of it is just insanity, the things they’re saying. But it does have a negative effect when people take it seriously and take it out on you and your family,” he added.
Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a Republican, sent Fauci a harsh message after his retirement in December of last year.
In an interview, Fauci—who said he had no regrets about his handling of the pandemic—was asked if there was anything he would do differently about the COVID-19 outbreak.
“Likely, there is no public figure, or public health figure, that has made a greater error in judgment than Dr. Fauci. The error in judgment was to fund gain-of-function research in a totalitarian country—fun research that allowed them to create super viruses that, in all likelihood, accidentally leaked into the public and caused seven million people to die,” said Paul, who frequently clashed with Fauci during Senate oversight hearings into Fauci’s responses and recommendations regarding the pandemic.
Paul accused Fauci of lying to Congress in December 2021 and said he would be referring that case to the Biden Justice Department.
In an interview with Fox Business, Paul acknowledged that he does not “have a lot of hope” that Fauci will face charges from President Biden’s attorney general, Merrick Garland, who he claimed is not going to be “objectively looking” at the chief White House medical adviser’s congressional testimony.
“We’ve referred him to the Department of Justice, but then again, Merrick Garland is the one now going after parents that go to school board meetings,” Paul said.
Paul continued, “So I don’t have a lot of hope that Merrick Garland is objectively looking at Fauci’s lying,” before making a pointed 12-word statement about the NIAID director: “Fauci should go to prison for five years for lying to Congress.”
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At the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C., Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said Fauci would go to jail under any “sane system.”
“There has been no person who has done more to destroy trust in the scientific and medical community than Dr. Anthony Fauci, who told millions of Americans lies willingly, knowingly, glibly, and supremely arrogantly,” Cruz said.
“Should there be accountability? In any sane system, he would be prosecuted for lying under oath, and he would go to jail for lying under oath to Congress,” he added.