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Dr. Anthony Fauci declines request to appear before a second Senate panel after GOP contempt vote
(www.independent.co.uk)
this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2026
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politics
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If I were him (which I'm not), I wouldn't appear before any political panels after what they did to him the first thing. All the panellists want is sound bites to make him look bad.
If only it were just sound bites.
They want to put him in prison because that's what the nutjobs in their base want. They can (and have before) combed through testimony to find any discrepancies to charge people with perjury. They would do the same with Fauci, except Biden granted a pardon to Fauci. But that pardon wouldn't cover any new testimony Fauci gives.
So their plan was to bring in Fauci, ask him a bunch of questions, if even a single word can be interpreted to mean anything that could be considered false, then they charge him for perjury.
Which is why Fauci took the 5th on every question last time. It's not that he's done anything incriminating (he was pardoned anyway) it's that he knows the point of the whole exercise is to incriminate him with perjury.
They want him executed. They're horny for their enemies to be put to death by the state.
This is why we need to abandon this mentality that pleading the 5th is the same thing as admitting guilt. Not only is it fundamentally not the same thing, and explicitly distinct from it, but it's also our first line of defense against abuses of power and politically targeted libel/smear campaigns such as this.
Well the main problem is using the justice system to prosecute political enemies. This led to abusing perjury laws, so now pleading the 5th is the prudent thing to do when you're a political enemy of those in power.
🌎👨🚀🔫👨🚀
Always has been.
This assumption is too strong. Imagine making this same statement about Jan 6th rioters.
Are you seriously comparing Fauci to the Jan 6 rioters?
Yes. The rioters certainly did something incriminating before they were pardoned.
Claiming Fauci didn't do anything incriminating, but was pardoned anyway, is pure speculation.
Except that we have live footage of the J6 rioters committing federal crimes up to and including sedition, insurrection, and treason; which was broadcast on national television and replayed extensively for weeks. And not one but two investigations by a special counsel who successfully brought the case before a grand jury which concluded that a crime did likely occur. And multiple FBI investigations resulting in hundreds of convictions, to boot.
Versus Anthony Fauci, where the only even suggestion that he was involved in any wrongdoing comes directly from the same propagandists and conspiracy theorists who were responsible for the J6 riot and have brazenly weaponized the justice department on sham trials in retaliation against perceived political opponents.
Yeah, you've got no paddle in this argument. He was pardoned preemptively because it was already obvious that these freaks would try to persecute him.
Claiming Fauci committed any crimes is what's pure speculation here. And besides, the burden of proof is on the accuser. They couldn't come up with anything to incriminate him before, so harassing him again about it is akin to double jeopardy.
Or he did something that needed pardoning. Which is more likely.
Funding research abroad is not a crime. Covering up a paper trail leading to gain of function bat virus experimentation is.
We don’t know that he didn't do anything indictable. We do know he can't be indicted.
Agreed. Pleading the 5th is the only sane response.
...you claim without evidence while accusing me of speculating about his innocence...
Is there any reason to believe he did this other than right-wing conspiracy nutjobs say he did? Just cause Cousin Earl talks about it at holidays is no reason to indict.
We don't know that you didn't do anything indictable either. Fortunately for you that's not enough to bring you to court. That's not how our justice system works.
Which is what he did. And now he's refusing to play their games because he knows they have no cards.
The claim above was that "It's not that he's done anything incriminating". We do not know this. The preemptive pardon makes this even less likely.
It depends how linked he is to his aide
I have made no claim either way.
Please, go ahead and make it more abundantly clear that you don't know how the US justice system works. If people could be indicted simply because there's no proof of their innocence, then no one would be safe from prosecution.
Say you work retail and your coworker gets busted for murder. Are you somehow implicated because you work with the person?
Neither has Fauci. That's what pleading the fifth is.
Read the initial statement.
"It's not that he's done anything incriminating".
It is not "we can prove in court he did something indicatable". This is not a case of innocent until proven guilty.
If you are a boss and your subordinate does something wrong that is work related, you are either implicated or negligent. Neither are good.
I'm not correcting Fauci. I'm correcting the inital statement above.
A whole bunch of people believe in conspiracy theories over science, so they want to put a prominent scientist into prison.
Do you think it's an assumption that conspiracy theories have made people stupid?
Is the possibility that Covid-19 leaked from a lab a conspiracy theory?
Was there a DARPA research group planning to insert a "proteolytic cleavage site” into bat coronaviruses?
Did Niaid award a research grant to a company, who then issued a sub-award to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China (and intentionally hide communications from public view)?
Not questioning government sources is the stupid part (particularly with this administration, but also with others).
Yes Fauci was pardoned, but we can't assume him to be innocent.
How the problem originated isn't relevant to the people whose job is to deal with the problem.
I think you may have gone too deep into covid conspiracies. No idea what you're even talking about here.
Yes, there were grants to a research lab. Not sure what that indicates other than they wanted access to the results of the research. It's not at all disputed that there are research grants and the research lab in Wuhan received a research grant.
The problem with conspiracy theories is the generally fall apart when as soon as you ask "why would they want to do this?" So why would China want to intentionally release a virus on it's own people in the hopes that it would spread to the rest of the world? How would that benefit them in any way?
Yes, it's possible that the virus accidentally came from the lab in Wuhan. But how does having testimony from a guy that's retired help determine that? What does it even accomplish even if you did determine that a virus came from a lab in Wuhan?
Sounds to me like you just want someone to say "you were right, the virus came from a lab." So ok...
You were right, the virus came from a lab.
Are you happy now? Has your life suddenly gotten better? Will you stop pretending that fascists cracking down on individual scientists is a good thing to do because you now feel emotionally vindicated about some internet arguments you had around five years ago?
If they caused the problem it is relevant.
Leaked Grant Proposal Details High-Risk Coronavirus Research This research plan was rejected inside the US, so abroad is the likely place where this could be done.
The point is that fauci's associates were deliberately keeping communications a secret. Literally a conspiracy.
Maybe they want to hide that they funded the gain of function research that lead to millions of deaths.
To find out exactly what research Wuhan was doing for Niaid, and who authorised it. This would lead to even stricter controls on gain of function research worldwide.
I doubt they would. Most likely the virus was accidentally "walked out of the lab".
I don't care who cracks down. I don't want dangerous viruses to be artificially mutated to make them even more dangerous for humans.
Are you under the impression that Dr. Anthony Fauci worked at the research lab in Wuhan?
This is like wanting to arrest a fire fighter because you suspect someone else burned down your house. You went in too deep on the anti-vax conspiracy theories, bud.
No. Are you? However, he may have been (ultimately) responsible for authorising funding for the research in Wuhan that created Covid.
Do you think Fauci intended for the Wuhan lab to release a virus?
Not at all. I think it's highly likely everyone involved was working for the betterment of mankind.
However, no person, group, institution or country wants to be shown to be responsible for Covid so it's in the interests of the Chinese to destroy all physical evidence and for the Americans to destroy all financial records.
The American financial records were not destroyed... how else do you think it's known that the Wuhan lab got US grant money.
And sure the Chinese probably would destroy records. What do you think Fauci could do about that? Do you think he would know about activities China? He didn't work for the CIA.
So what is the point of getting testimony from a retired doctor about records being potentially destroyed records in China? What's the point of putting him in jail for something that happened in China?
This isn't about holding the government to account. It's about getting revenge on Fauci because people foolishly blame him for the pandemic. Arresting the fireman because you suspect arson in another country.
The Gmail conversations used to avoid FOIA disclosure point to a conspiracy.
Yes, because he (probably) approved funding for the gain of function research that lead to Covid.
Agreed. And his pardon should protect him.
But we still can't claim that he has not done anything incriminating.
If you order a product to be delivered to your house and the driver of the delivery truck runs over a kid, then it can be proven that you approved funding an activity that resulted in the death of a child. So what should happen next? Should you go to prison?
You're arguing from emotion and there's no logic to anything. Whatever happened in China was clearly not intentional. There may or may not have been an accident. If there was an accident and there was US funding involved, it doesn't matter if Fauci personally approved the funding. Just like it wouldn't matter if you approved funding for something and then an accident happens, you wouldn't go to prison.
See when you go too deep into conspiracy theory land you start thinking everyone is 100% competent, there are no accidents and people do malicious things fro no reason. If you think about it rationally, US sent a grant to a research lab to do... you know.. research. There may or may not have been an accident at the lab. Even if we assume there was an accident at the lab, that does not indicate there was anything criminal happening.
Other than the concept of innocent until proven guilty. Fauci wasn't proven guilty of anything.
Going down this route, I can't prove that you've never done anything incriminating. So is it fair for me to assume you're a criminal?
Well. If you ordered the driver to go as fast as possible, take the fastest route by the schools and run every red light, then needlessly excessive risks were taken and the ability for you and your successors to make similar orders should be severely curtailed. If you then tried to hide evidence that any enquiry would be interested in, then that would be illegal and should be lawfully punished.
Quite the opposite. I'm saying it is logically impossible to claim the negative that Fauci had not done anything incriminating. In fact, given that a blanket pardon was granted, it is highly likely that something undisclosed occurred.
Legally irrelevant but reputationally devastating. More than enough reason for illegal cover ups.
The blanket pardon nullifies this argument. Fauci may have done any number of incriminating acts prior to 2024, but none will ever be proven in court. It is not possible to claim there weren't any.
Now you've got it. This statement can't logically be made.
You are not in a position to claim I am not a criminal.
Are you implying that Fauci ordered the Wuhan lab to take unnecessary risks? Where is the evidence?
Or it's evidence that Biden believed that the DOJ would be weaponized and they would target Fauci. Events have proven Biden to be correct in this assessment.
You are also in no position to claim Fauci is a criminal. You haven't provided me evidence you are not a criminal, your "logic" says that because you can't proved you haven't done anything incriminating, I should assume that you are a criminal.
When are you going to provide me evidence that you aren't a criminal? Or will you admit that you only emotionally feel Fauci did something criminal and you have no evidence, and you're trying to pass your emotions off as "logic"?
If Fauci has to prove he's not a criminal, then so do you. So where's your proof that you weren't involved with creating covid?
Gain of function research is an unnecessary risk that, by design, creates more dangerous versions of existing viruses. Darpa refused to fund the research.. Instead it was outsourced to Wuhan, funded by the US and approved by Fauci.
Because it seems there is actual fire under the smoke.
I'm not calling him a criminal at all. I'm saying he may have done incriminating things, which have now been pardoned.
Not quite. You cannot assume I am not a criminal. We cannot assume Fauci did nothing incriminating.
I don't need to. Whether I am or not has no relevance.
Fauci has means, motivation, opportunity, conspiracy accused colleagues and a blanket pardon. If the US did fund research that lead to covid, he is right at the top of responsibility with the most to gain from an unlawful cover-up and the protection needed to survive any attack. These are facts, not feelings.
He doesn't. What you have to do is admit the possibility that he may have done something incriminating.
Stay off Facebook.
The only speculation here is that these three bullet points are related.
"My 'I'm not Dr. Fauci' T-shirt has people asking a lot of questions already answered by my shirt"
They're trying to make Trump and the GOP's complete fuckup of covid his fault.
This regime is a fucking circus.