(WAVE/WKYT) – The US Justice Department is still contemplating whether to bring contempt of Congress charges against Dr. Anthony Fauci after Kentucky Senator Rand Paul’s committee made the recommendation along party lines.
It comes as the result of Fauci pleading the Fifth Amendment more th
an 100 times in front of a Senate committee on July 29.
Sen. Paul spoke with WAVE Anchor Scott Reynolds about why he’s pushing for Fauci to face contempt charges.
Paul claims records of Fauci’s daily logs and texts contradict what he often said in public, from the effectiveness of masks and the science of social distancing to the origins of COVID. He highlighted a supposed Fauci note in 2020 that claimed the first infection did not come from a wet market, something he didn’t say publicly.
It is important to note that a definitive source for the origins of COVID-19 has not been determined and remains the source of debate in both political and medical circles. The debate centers on whether the source of the illness is zoonotic (natural) or laboratory research.
“A million Americans died. I think it’s an important subject to discuss: should we have funded dangerous research in China?” Paul said. “The CIA, FBI, and the Department of Energy all believe it came from a lab. Scientists, many of them, I don’t know their political affiliations at all, believe it came from a lab. These are important discussions because this is an ongoing battle in our country: should we fund dangerous research in foreign countries?”
Fauci has said that Paul has an “unhinged obsession” with prosecuting him and said Paul had a personal vendetta and sought statements in the committee hearing to vindicate public pledges to put the former chief medical advisor “behind bars.”
Even if the Department of Justice brought contempt charges against Fauci, legal experts believe it will go through a long court battle over the legality of those charges.