OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Republicans are constructing their case against Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, according to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan.
“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 definitely do that. You could have one of the committees, and the Senate Judiciary Committee could do 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 says he’s received death threats over the GOP’s call to have him prosecuted.
“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 do harm to me and/or my family,” he said. “That’s the part of it that is really 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.
Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul issued a brutal statement to Fauci after he retired last December.
Fauci, who declared that he had no regrets about how he handled the pandemic, was asked in an interview if there was anything he would do differently regarding the COVID-19 outbreak.
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.
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.”
