House Republicans say they’re not done with Anthony Fauci yet.
Emboldened by recently discovered emails showing attempts by top aides to evade public records laws and lingering anger over coronavirus mitigation efforts, Republicans say they want to bring criminal charges against the former top disease official infectious diseases in the country.
Fauci was widely seen as the public face of the coronavirus pandemic, but Republicans think they are close to finding a smoking gun that proves not only that he lied to Congress but that he led a government cover-up about the origins of the virus.
Fauci has been a lightning rod for criticism from conservatives, especially among allies of former President Trump. Calls to prosecute the 83-year-old former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for unspecified crimes have become a rallying cry among some on the right.
During a hearing this week, Republicans on the subcommittee investigating the pandemic grilled Fauci about his relationship with EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit that received federal funding from Fauci’s agency to conduct virus experiments in Wuhan, China.
Fauci has repeatedly denied that EcoHealth was conducting controversial “gain of function” research, although Republicans have accused him of splitting hairs. They questioned him about David Morens, a former aide who deleted emails and appeared to try to prevent information from being released under transparency laws.
Although the hearing did not present evidence linking Fauci to the origins of the pandemic, some Republicans insisted that he was still responsible and needs to be held accountable.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) told Fauci he should be “prosecuted for crimes against humanity” and did not deserve to have a medical license.
“You belong in prison, Dr. Fauci,” Greene said.
Fauci also criticized broader COVID-19 issues, such as the justification for closing schools and churches and the government’s recommendation for 6 feet of “social distancing.”
The former NIAID director blamed Republican attacks for inciting threats against him and his family.
Appearing Monday night on Newsmax after the hearing, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), who also sits on the COVID subpanel, accused Fauci of causing “further damage to our national debt and the our economy than any human being in my lifetime.”
“I hope we can take him at his word today and continue to try to gather evidence and take steps to try to hold him accountable for criminal wrongdoing, because I believe most Americans realize that Dr. Fauci made costly mistakes, he lied about them, and he tried to cover them up. that,” Comer said.
“We’re going to move this forward,” subcommittee chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) told Fox News when asked how he planned to proceed.
“As far as any criminal liability, I think there is a case to be made,” he added.
Fauci’s lawyers did not respond to a request for comment.
After the hearing, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), a ranking member of the Oversight Committee who also sits on the COVID subcommittee, said Republicans had no case, comparing it to their so-far fruitless impeachment investigation of President Biden.
“The effort to defame and defame Dr. Fauci parallels your effort to defame and impeach Joe Biden. Both were complete failures because there is no evidence behind any of it, but it reflects his new style of political character assassination,” Raskin said.
Wenstrup requested Fauci’s private emails and cellphone records related to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, EcoHealth and the origins of the coronavirus. Republicans have not yet threatened a subpoena, but Wenstrup gave Fauci until June 12 for a written response.
Democrats on the subcommittee have repeatedly said efforts to go after Fauci fall outside the committee’s stated goals of trying to find the origins of COVID-19 and preparing for the next pandemic.
“I think we should actually spend more time trying to understand what we did well during the pandemic, what we didn’t do well, and then really trying to prepare for…the next pandemic,” Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif.) told The Hill.
“I think the whole year and a half the committee has been focused on the witch hunt,” he added.
But fellow House Republicans support Fauci’s goals of criminal referrals, even if they can’t pinpoint specific crimes.
“It’s certainly worth investigating,” Rep. Michael Cloud (R-Texas) told The Hill. “I’m not a lawyer to tell you which subset of the U.S. code, but I can tell you, from a moral standpoint, it’s easy to say that he wasn’t faithfully executing the duties of his office when it came to what’s best for the American . people.”
Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) said Fauci’s testimony was “incriminating” and that it was time to “stop playing word games and semantics.”
“I think the only way we’re going to be able to gain the public’s trust, when it comes to public health, when it comes to vaccines, is to hold people accountable,” Miller-Meeks said.
“You cannot simply hold a government position, earn a very high salary, and then expect to leave and retire whenever you want after misleading the public and promoting your own agenda.”
On the other side of the Capitol, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), perhaps Fauci’s loudest critic in Congress, took particular interest in Morens’ emails that seemed to imply that Fauci was aware of “back channels.” and questionable practices.
Fauci vehemently denied any knowledge of Morens’ emails on Monday.
“If that doesn’t warrant further scrutiny or a lawsuit, I don’t know what does,” Paul said of the disconnect between Morens and Fauci while appearing Tuesday on The Hill’s “Rising.”
“[Morens’s] the statement directly conflicts with what Anthony Fauci said yesterday, who said he never used private email, never used a private phone,” Paul said. “And so I really think that further investigation is needed to find out who is telling the truth here.”
Holden Thorp, editor of Science magazine, said the politically expedient attacks have not yet reached Fauci.
“To my knowledge, no one has produced any evidence that Tony Fauci knowingly and intentionally buried the idea of the lab leak,” Thorp said.
“I don’t agree with what they mean by that. But I also think there are things that the scientific community has done that we could have done better,” she added.
Thorp testified before the subcommittee earlier this year about alleged efforts to suppress the lab leak theory in scientific journals and denied that Fauci pressured him. But he said he understands the politics at play.
“The truth is that we had an election, they won the majority, they were able to hold these hearings. And going out there and answering their questions as cooperatively as possible is probably the best move,” he said.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
