Dr. Fauci testifies on COVD-19 during Senate hearing, invokes 5th Amendment

[0:01] and from the work that he has done from hiv aids to ebola to covid you know we've seen [0:07] him try to engage in these crises they're not easy especially when it's a novel disease when [0:13] you don't know what comes next a lot of unknowns having to make decisions without the full breadth [0:19] of knowledge we always wish we had in hindsight but there is nothing perfect no perfect clarity [0:25] when it comes to pandemics when it comes to crises i worked in national security and wars [0:31] and crises i made judgment calls gave my best advice to generals to ambassadors even to a president [0:38] did i get it all right no did i do my best i did everything i thought i could with the information [0:45] that i had the public servants they do this work because they love this country and that they strive [0:54] to improve it it's not an easy job but it is because there's so much at stake in our country [1:02] but these public servants do it because they are in the arena i just want to end by just reading [1:10] a portion of this because i think it's important as we're thinking about how to be able to treat [1:16] public servants through this country to think through this and in the words of teddy roosevelt [1:21] saying it's not the critic who counts not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles [1:27] or where the doer of deeds could have done them better the credit belongs to the man who is actually [1:32] in the arena whose faces marred by dust and sweat and blood who strive valiantly who errors becomes [1:39] short again and again who spends himself in a worthy cause who at the best knows in the end the [1:46] triumphs of high achievement and who at the worst if he fails at least he fails while daring greatly [1:52] so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat [1:59] thank you for your service dr fauci i yield back senator holling thank you mr chairman well nothing [2:06] says honesty like taking the fifth huh doc let's try something what day of the week is it today on [2:17] the advice of counsel i respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the fifth amendment [2:23] to the constitution what color tie you're wearing on the advice of counsel i respectfully decline to [2:30] answer based upon my rights under the fifth amendment to the constitution what color is the [2:34] carpet in front of you on the advice of counsel i respectfully decline to answer based upon my [2:43] rights under the fifth amendment to the constitution let's just get one thing straight you don't have [2:47] any rights under the fifth amendment because you've been pardoned as you very well know as the supreme [2:52] court has been clear for a century and more brown versus walker 1896 when he has been pardoned he may [2:58] not stand upon his privilege you know that your lawyers sitting behind you now shifting nervously in their [3:04] chairs they know it this isn't about the constitution this isn't about the law this is about contempt [3:10] contempt for this body and contempt for the american people but i think i know why you're doing it it's [3:15] because you don't want to answer questions it's because you did all kinds of terrible things it's because [3:22] during the pandemic you got rich didn't you you got rich while people were dying hundreds of thousands [3:29] of americans over a million in the end and you were getting rich and not only were you doing that you [3:34] were using federal employees with taxpayer money to apply for and solicit cash prizes for you [3:42] personally cash prizes totaling over a million dollars you did all of that during the pandemic [3:49] didn't you that's a question on the advice of counsel i respectfully decline to answer based upon [3:57] my rights under the fifth amendment to the constitution you remember greg folkers who was that on the [4:04] advice of counsel i respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the fifth amendment to [4:09] the constitution your chief of staff is the answer do you remember patricia conrad who was that on the [4:16] advice of counsel i respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the fifth amendment to [4:20] the constitution uh-huh she was your personal assistant and what were these individuals doing in [4:25] the depth of the pandemic in november of 2020 when millions of americans were suffering from [4:31] covid what were they doing i tell you what they're doing focus was on your behalf soliciting and [4:38] gathering information for a cash award let's look at it we've got his email right here right over my [4:43] shoulder folker says i'm working on this nomination for the dan david award for fauci we need to beef up [4:49] the covid part do you have language in the can that you could share that delineates how we responded [4:55] in new ways to covet he sends this to multiple federal employees what was the dan david award do you [5:00] remember doc on the advice of counsel i respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the [5:08] fifth amendment to the constitution it was a 900 000 cash award 900 000 cash award and he got it [5:20] because he used federal employees to get it and this wasn't the only award was it dr fauci in fact [5:26] you applied for and received at least eight other federal cash prizes on federal time using federal [5:34] employees and federal resources here they are over my shoulder besides the dan david award you've got [5:39] the partnership for public service you've got the adelson prize you've got the smithsonian award you've [5:43] got the national academy of medicines award you got the cdc foundation in fact you turn your staff [5:49] into a full-time application machine you actually wrote to people and said do you think maybe i'd qualify [5:56] and you got cash for all of this and it wasn't just one or two employees was it in fact you use [6:02] eight separate federal employees on federal time using federal resources to solicit cash awards isn't [6:09] that true on the advice of counsel i respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the [6:16] fifth amendment to the constitution here they are right over my shoulder here's all of them the people [6:21] that you use federal employees so that you could go and get cash money and the most hilarious part is [6:29] that you weren't content to even dragoon them into applying for all of these cash awards you then had [6:34] them go out to the ethics agencies and ethics watchdogs and demand that you be able to get the money [6:41] that's right we've got it in your emails your staff and employees on federal time using federal resources [6:50] being paid with federal dollars are soliciting cash for you and then they're turning around [6:54] and saying to the agency we don't want just an answer we want to get to yes because fauci wants the [7:01] money he wants it we want to get to yes and yes takes time this is your chief of staff again using [7:09] federal email to pressure the agency's own ethics people so that you could get money so that you could [7:16] get rich and it violated the law didn't it dr fauci didn't it it violated the law didn't it it is a [7:29] question you can answer go ahead on the advice of counsel i respectfully decline to answer based upon [7:34] my rights under the fifth amendment to the constitution federal law as you very well know prohibits [7:40] the solicitation of cash awards or other personal benefits for federal employees and it certainly [7:46] prohibits using your own employees to do this 5cfr section 2635 205b it says it right there in black [7:57] and white you cannot use federal resources federal dollars federal employees federal offices federal [8:05] email federal time to solicit cash awards and you did all of it and the worst part is thousands of [8:11] people were dying while you were doing it you were supposed to be the nation's doctor and you're [8:15] playing one on tv but this is what you were doing with your time isn't that true on the advice of [8:25] counsel i respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the fifth amendment to the [8:29] constitution yeah yeah i can see why i can certainly see why you know what i can't quite [8:35] figure out is that why you were so obsessed with it because you're already rich i mean and your [8:40] your scheme worked here i mean you're not worth now is north of 12 million dollars you got over a [8:47] million dollars in cash awards during covid during a 12 month 24 month span during covid a million bucks [8:56] you knocked down in cash money using federal resources now you're worth more than 12 million [9:02] dollars you've got a pension that in its first year paid out north of four hundred thousand dollars [9:07] a year a million people dead you're getting rich a million people dead you're using federal employees [9:14] to get cash awards for you a million people dead and you're here taking the fifth because you don't [9:20] want to admit that what really happened in all that time was a multi-month multi-year course of self [9:26] dealing isn't that true dr fauci on the advice of counsel i respectfully decline to answer based upon [9:34] my rights under the fifth amendment to the constitution yeah we'll silence his admission [9:40] and here's the real thing at the end of the day it wasn't just about the money really was it [9:45] it was really about a power trip i mean through all of this you you want to be the most famous [9:50] scientist in the world you were so focused on getting every award and every drop of cash that [9:54] you could all because you wanted to be on tv you wanted to be the sun god of science you wanted to be [10:01] the guy who was in charge of it all you wanted to blambass trump you wanted to make sure that nobody [10:06] else stole your spotlight you wanted to be the guy you had time to sit for in style magazine here's what [10:14] you were doing with your time you could sit for in style magazine but you can't answer questions for [10:20] the american people you could sit for in style magazine but you're here taking the fifth you could [10:25] sit for in style magazine and get a million bucks in cash awards but now the cat's got your tongue [10:31] i bet he does i tell you what here's my conclusion from all of this this was really all about you the [10:38] whole time somewhere along the way you lost your way you may have been a good public servant at one time [10:44] i don't know but i can tell you from reading your emails now from looking what you did how you used [10:49] your employees somewhere along the line it became all about you you became a narcissist and a megalomaniac [10:56] and a liar and you've lied to the american people and you've lied to this body and you've disgraced [11:02] your profession by doing it you called yourself the most famous scientist in the world you've done [11:06] more to harm science than anybody in my lifetime and i hope you'll go home and write that in your diary [11:12] thank you mr chairman senator fetterman thank you mr chairman uh dr vacci i'm not here to perhaps [11:24] attack you or defend or anything it's really just just more uh honestly i'm just want to acknowledge [11:31] i have had members of my family die from covid and now i also grieve for people that i've met [11:39] that have lost their business through the the pandemic and they'll never been the same now as [11:48] during the pandemic i was the lieutenant governor so we were in the middle of of all of that maelstrom [11:54] trying to find the right balance between protect life and protect the economics and for all of it [12:01] and i'm not sure if we got it all right or wrong but without a doubt i can continue to question myself [12:09] but one that i it's not about much more your regrets but i have one and and that is early on [12:17] that there was the theory that the virus could have emerged from the lab and early on that became [12:26] like a right wing kinds of theory and i thought it seemed to make sense now there was a really advanced [12:34] lab that was close by and then you have this unknown virus uh out so but that became a very [12:43] partisan thing and now uh it seems now it's more and more emerging theory that that would have come [12:49] from from the lab now you know i hope i think that the next time our nation's facing something like this [12:57] we are not become you know as i might have been blinded by the partisan idea that maybe the truth [13:03] might come from a side that's different than than you are but i think we should really be willing to [13:09] pursue truth no matter where that may have emerged you know after for all of that so and i now see the [13:18] the remain back to the chair thank you senator moreno thank you mr chairman and uh i will echo [13:25] senator johnson's comments about uh your opening statement mr chairman i think it was it was dead on [13:30] very very well done mr fauci do you know who david shirtler is on the advice of counsel i respectfully [13:40] decline to answer based upon my rights under the fifth amendment to the constitution fifth amendment [13:47] fifth amendment of the constitution what does the fifth amendment of the constitution say on the [14:00] advice of counsel i respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the fifth amendment of [14:05] the constitution no i'm just asking you what it says on the advice of counsel i respectfully decline [14:12] to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. I'm going to give [14:16] the Constitution to my aide. He'll bring it over to you so you can have it for future reference. [14:21] I think it's something that every American should know what the Constitution says. Do you know who [14:26] wrote the Fifth Amendment? On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my [14:32] rights under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution. So you're invoking a right that you don't know [14:36] who wrote it or what it says. Is that correct? On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline [14:41] to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. [14:46] Wow. Well, let me tell you who David Shertler is for the audience because he was ejected by the [14:51] chairman. He's a high-profile criminal attorney. He's represented some really great people like [14:58] Senator Bob Menendez. Maybe that's somebody who my Democrat colleagues may remember took gold bars [15:06] as bribes from the Egyptians. And there's an article here in the Washington Free Beacon that talks about [15:14] why you would hire Guy Lake-Divers Shertler. And the comment is, if you're in deep shit, that's who [15:19] you call. Do you feel like you're in deep shit? On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to [15:26] answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. Clearly, what you think today [15:35] is that somehow you're above reproach. Somehow you feel like you don't need to be treated like a [15:44] normal American. Can you do me a favor in the audience and stand up if during the time of the [15:55] COVID pandemic, you were called a racist for calling the virus a Wuhan virus or the China virus? If you [16:03] thought the six-foot rule was total crap? If you thought the vaccine wasn't something that you should [16:08] take? If you thought it was outrageous the way the mass policy was rolled out? If you were fired from your [16:15] job for not taking that vaccine, including members of the military, if you thought closing schools was [16:22] catastrophically stupid, and that you thought that during these times saying these things made you [16:29] somehow a lesser human being. Dr. Frederick, can you just turn around and look at the people behind you? [16:41] You're not willing to do that? Is that a question? It's not a question to your lawyers, not a question. [16:48] It's a request. All you have to do is look up from your lawyers and look at the people who were [16:56] absolutely shamed for saying what we know now to be the truth. You can't even look at them? That's a [17:06] question. Are you able to look at them? You can sit down in the audience. There was a mom in Ohio [17:19] during the depth of the coronavirus pandemic, decided to go to her high school football game for her son. [17:31] They hadn't been out much. The kids had been learning at school, and then the school got shut down. [17:38] They hadn't really gotten much out of that education. As any parent knew, that remote learning was no [17:46] learning at all. But it was a Friday night. Her son wanted to go watch a buddy go play football. [17:54] So they went to the stadium. They sat alone, far from everybody else, just a mom, a dad, a few kids. [18:04] They didn't feel they needed to wear masks because it was stupid, because they were outside. They all live [18:12] together. They're not near anybody. Dr. Fauci, do you know what happened to that mom and that family? [18:22] That's a question. On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my [18:28] rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. They were dragged out of that stadium and arrested. [18:41] Those policies were put in place because you had moronic politicians that listened to the words of a [18:50] megalomaniac who was more interested in having met a Kardashian than the suffering of the American [18:58] people. And that is you. Your advice to communities like that, to idiotic politicians who enforce those [19:10] rules, arrested that mom for watching a football game with her own family outside. When that story [19:21] broke, I said to myself, I cannot stand Ilee on the side and watch this happen. It was about six years ago [19:32] today that I decided I'm going to give up my businesses, sell them all, run for office, [19:39] run through the United States Senate. Here I am sitting in front of you six years later saying, [19:44] who the fuck do you think you were for doing that? It is a total disgrace what you did to this country. [19:52] And if my Democrat colleagues are standing there defending you, I hope the voters of the United [19:57] States of America watched the clips of every one of you doting on a guy who was more interested in [20:04] being a celebrity than saving American people. I will make it my mission to make certain that every [20:13] single one of those republic Democrats who did that will see that clip over and over and over again, [20:21] because defending there is no defense of what you did. You may have had a 50 plus year legacy of public [20:34] service, but it ends in total and complete disgrace. So let me ask you an opportunity to [20:42] answer one question. Will you apologize, just apologize to the people who you harmed through [20:53] your actions? Will you say, do you have the dignity to just say you're sorry? On the advice of counsel, [21:04] I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. [21:09] So you won't apologize to the military members who Joe Biden is summerly dismissed from the military [21:15] for not taking the vaccine? On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my [21:22] rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. Will you apologize to the business owners that [21:26] lost their business, shattered their lives, and they'll never recover? On the advice of counsel, [21:33] I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. [21:38] Will you apologize to the moms who had to force their infant children, two, three, [21:43] four-year-olds to put masks on, and what that did and how that traumatized those kids? [21:48] Under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. Will you apologize to the family members of the people [22:00] who died because they took your advice and not only got the first vaccine, but the five, [22:05] six other boosters that they did not need? [22:08] It's based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. [22:17] Will you apologize to that mom from Ohio for being arrested for watching a football game with her family? [22:34] So you didn't know who wrote the Fifth Amendment. It's James Madison. [22:39] Lived in this town. I can only wonder what he would think of somebody like you invoking [22:48] his writings to shield culpability for the actions that you took. It's no secret why you have to [22:58] hire the biggest dirtbag attorney on the planet because of what you did. I hope you're paying him [23:06] well, and I hope that one way or the other, somewhere, sometime, you answer for your crimes. [23:17] Senator Ernst. [23:18] Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this important hearing today. Dr. Fauci, Americans haven't forgotten [23:27] the tragic stories of people who lost loved ones during COVID and those that were denied a chance [23:37] to say goodbye to their family members that were in hospitals or residing in nursing homes because [23:46] of the COVID-19 protocols. Americans haven't forgotten the mandates, the adverse reactions to [23:53] vaccines, the government misinformation, social media censorship, hotlines to tattle on their [24:03] neighbors, the forced school closures, the tragic rise in suicides, or those businesses that were [24:16] forced to close during lockdowns. Americans haven't forgotten the hundreds of billions of dollars spent by [24:27] taxpayers for COVID relief stolen by fraudsters who bought Royals, excuse me, Rolls Royces and yachts. [24:41] These were taxpayer dollars. Americans have lost trust in science and government after the COVID response, [24:49] trust which will be incredibly difficult for us to gain back. Dr. Fauci, you have said that the science was [24:57] evolving and that your recommendations evolved with it. But Americans remember you as the public face of the [25:09] coronavirus response. As one of the nation's most trusted voices, you urged policies you said were absolutely [25:19] necessary, even when those policies came at an enormous human and economic cost. And Americans deserve answers [25:31] about reports that you may have worked with others to pressure the president into adopting the slow the spread [25:42] strategy and why you later sought an unconditional pardon for crimes you may have committed dating back [25:50] to 2014. Dr. Fauci, in 2022, you had a taxpayer funded salary of $480,000 a year. You were in fact the highest paid [26:04] federal employee in the entire federal government, even making more than the NIH director and the president of [26:14] the United States. According to now public documents, that was due in large part to your work on biodefense. [26:25] Unreported is how NIAID spent over $1 billion from 2009 to 2026 in biodefense and influenza federal contracts and subcontracts. [26:39] My office uncovered records on usaspending.gov that show from 2015 to 2020 NIAID paid out $515,418 in subcontracts to [26:55] Harbin Veterinary Institute in Harbin, China, including $100,000 a few days after it opened a BSL-4 biolab in 2018. [27:08] That very same institute was criticized for doing gain-of-function bird flu research in 2013. [27:18] And yet you were funding them for years after that, sending U.S. taxpayer dollars to China. [27:26] These contracts, which we also traced to NIAID, show U.S. taxpayers funded gain-of-function researchers [27:33] in the Netherlands and in Wisconsin, funding the same folks whose controversial work led President [27:40] Obama to pause this exact type of dangerous pandemic research. [27:48] Dr. Fauci, did you know that the NIH's billion-dollar Sears contract programs [27:55] were funding gain-of-function researchers in China, the U.S., and in the Netherlands? [28:02] Upon the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under [28:10] the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. [28:11] Dr. Fauci, Dr. Deborah Birx wrote in her book that you and President Obama's former CDC director [28:22] were at a Saturday, March 14th, were at a Saturday, March 14th, yes, 2020 meeting at her home two days [28:32] before the president announced his 15 days to slow the spread effort. Your now-release diaries said the [28:39] meeting was a week before that. Dr. Birx said you all were trying to trap the president into having no [28:47] other options. She wrote, your plan was to, quote, block any of the president's escape routes. So, quote, [28:57] he'd have no choice but to agree to our flatten-the-curve measures. Yes or no, Dr. Fauci, did you try to [29:05] block or trap President Trump into the slow-the-spread, flatten-the-curve measures in March 2020? [29:14] On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment [29:19] to the Constitution. [29:21] When the COVID-19 virus broke out in Wuhan, China, you, Dr. Fauci, knew pretty much right away [29:27] that NIH had funded Chinese labs, including those doing coronavirus research. There's email traffic [29:35] from early January 2020 where your staff was flagging for you that NIH funded coronavirus [29:41] research at the Wuhan lab through EcoHealth Alliance. Yet, few Americans knew we funded the Wuhan lab [29:48] because the funding went through a sub-award and was not reported to the public database like [29:55] USAspending.gov as it should have been. Also, EcoHealth violated federal law by failing to report in its [30:04] research papers how much taxpayer funding it spent on that research. At my request, the Government [30:11] Accountability Office helped track down that $1.4 million of U.S. taxpayer money that was sent to the [30:18] Wuhan Institute of Virology, both by you, Dr. Fauci, and through USAID. But first, it passed through [30:26] EcoHealth Alliance, which I helped to get defunded through the NDAA. Dr. Fauci, did you intentionally [30:34] use sub-award funding to obscure NIH funding of Chinese bio labs and coronavirus research? [30:42] On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to [30:49] the Constitution. NIAID awarded multi-million dollar grants to a number of scientists shortly after [30:57] they wrote publicly in the Proximal Origins paper that the COVID virus likely came from nature. Though [31:05] documents Chairman Paul released last week show in private, those same scientists were much more open [31:11] to the virus being from a lab. In 2023, Representative Jordan insinuated that you basically gave [31:19] a $9 million bribe in the form of an NIH grant to NIH-funded virologists to say the virus [31:30] likely was from nature. Dr. Fauci, yes or no, did you reward the Proximal Origin authors by giving them [31:37] NIAID grants or contracts? I completely decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to [31:48] the Constitution. Dr. Fauci, we have learned that U.S. coronavirus researchers at UNC shipped quote [31:57] humanized or transgenic mice to China by around 2017 for use in their dangerous coronavirus work. [32:05] Under your NIAID coronavirus, researchers also used aborted baby body parts in mice research and taxpayers [32:17] paid for them to do that. NIH-funded coronavirus researcher Dr. Ralph Baric and his colleagues at UNC [32:27] put parts of livers, thymuses, and chunks of human fetal lung that they got from aborted almost five-month-old [32:36] human babies. They put those parts in their research mice. They disgustingly named them BLTL mice and wrote they [32:48] had created a quote sandwich of aborted body parts in the mice. Get it folks? BLT. A BLT sandwich. Your RML lab [33:01] employees in Montana also ordered and used aborted baby body parts in their taxpayer-funded research. An [33:09] email show how they plan to use those mice for post-COVID work. NIH-funded putting aborted babies' fingers [33:20] and scalps off the heads of aborted babies and putting them into the backs of research mice. The [33:28] scalps later grew fine baby hair in the mice. They even included those disgusting photos in their research [33:36] paper that you funded. Not all of those were research on coronaviruses, but some were. Thankfully, the current [33:44] NIH director has said no more of this. Dr. Fauci, yes or no? Do you think that human aborted parts [33:55] should be put into mice for coronavirus research? The advice of counsel I respectfully decline to answer [34:04] based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. Mr. Chairman, would you direct the [34:10] witness to answer the questions that we have been asking? You probably would if he was here, but I can [34:17] direct it, but I think we understand his answer. We do understand that Americans are asking for [34:25] accountability, Dr. Fauci, and your silence is very telling. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Senator Moody. Thank [34:33] you, Mr. Chairman. I'm the most junior member of the Senate here, showing from where I sit. I just got here [34:42] last year. Many of you may remember I was the Attorney General in Florida who fought back against the [34:50] the lockdowns, the school closures, the church closures, the everything to embrace sanity and science. [34:59] We fought back. We got ridiculed for it. And we didn't just call people names. We actually [35:08] impaneled a grand jury of people of all walks of life, all political persuasions. So that's how I came here. [35:19] Fighting for a free state amongst states that had locked their own people down. We are now called the [35:29] free state of Florida. And I believe our responsibility here is to make sure that government remembers the [35:37] people are our bosses, that we report to them, that we're accountable to them. Government shouldn't operate [35:45] for itself. Government operates on behalf of and for the American people. And anytime we get close to [35:54] reporting back to our bosses about what government has done or how it's been abused or how individuals [36:01] that are employed by the government had acted in their own self-interest or against the interest of [36:05] the American people, every time we get close, if we start uncovering outrageous fraud, we'll have a [36:12] hearing. And the tactics have been to not show up. So you'll have all of us over here trying to drill [36:19] down on why we've been giving money that actually works against American citizens and no one shows up. [36:27] Today there's, well, nobody's here at the moment. Today there seems to be a difficult, [36:31] a different tactic. Today we have Democrats showing up and trying to spin why we shouldn't even be having [36:39] this hearing to report back to our bosses. One said, today's hearing does damage. It will deter [36:45] others from public service. Another said, this hearing is designed to entrap you. Another said, [36:52] one fell all over himself flattering you, thanking you for your service multiple times, [36:58] quoting man in the marina. Another said that we are demeaning first responders and today is a sad play [37:09] in a repeated playbook or we're going after one man. I mean, all of their time was used on why we should [37:18] not be having the hearing to report back to our bosses and give the people accountability. So I would [37:28] like to talk about that because I believe that trust, the trust the American people place in our [37:34] public health institutions and what happened to that trust during COVID is important because in a [37:39] public health emergency they are asked to make extraordinary sacrifices based on advice given to [37:45] them by the government that is supposed to be working for them. And for that system to work, [37:52] the public public has to be able to trust them, trust the people giving them instructions. That trust depends [37:58] on candor. Would you agree with that, Dr. Fauci? On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline [38:07] to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. And when the evidence [38:12] is uncertain, officials need to say so. When recommendations are based on assumptions, [38:18] rather than hard data, they need to say so. And when they get something wrong, they need to own it. [38:23] And when the trust is lost and the consequences extend far beyond any single pandemic, [38:30] the next time public health officials genuinely need Americans to listen, millions of people may [38:35] simply ignore them or not believe them. And Dr. Fauci, you were undeniably the face of the federal [38:42] government's COVID response. You said so yourself in your diary. You said it's not hyperbole to say I've [38:48] become the most famous and talked about person in the country. So I want to understand how we got here. [38:56] Let's start at the beginning. On March 8, 2020, you appeared on 60 Minutes to discuss the spread [39:05] of COVID-19. You were specifically asked to clear up the confusion and misinformation surrounding masks. [39:11] You told the American people, right now in the United States, people should not be walking around [39:15] with a mask. The interviewer immediately stopped you and said, are you sure of it? Because people are [39:21] listening really closely to this. And instead of walking back or qualifying your statement in any way, [39:26] you doubled down. There's no reason to be walking around with a mask. When you're in the middle of [39:30] an outbreak, wearing a mask might make people feel a little better. It might even block a droplet, [39:34] but it's not providing the perfect protection that people think it is. And often there are unintended [39:40] consequences. People keep fiddling with their masks. They keep touching their face. Just a few weeks later, [39:45] the CDC released its guidance recommending that Americans wear masks in public. You were asked to explain [39:52] your original recommendation. You emphasized a very different consideration. You said, [39:57] well, back then the critical issue was to save the mask for the people who really needed them because [40:02] it was felt there was a shortage of masks. So I want everybody to sit with that. The critical issue [40:10] driving your initial recommendation to the American public was scarcity, logistics, not medical evidence. [40:17] So when you told the American people there was no reason to wear a mask, what was your principal [40:24] objective, giving them an honest assessment of the medical evidence or discouraging them [40:28] from consuming a scarce supply of masks? On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer [40:37] based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. Well, unfortunately, that was just [40:42] the beginning of a broader pattern. Let's talk about the six foot distancing rule. In April 5th, [40:48] 2020, interview on CBS said, every time I get to that podium in the White House briefing room, I always [40:53] essentially plead with people, please take a look at those very simple guidelines of physical [40:58] separation. And they're very, very clear physically separate six feet away. Yet when Congress finally [41:04] asked you in 2024 what science supported that evidence six foot distance rule for COVID, you admitted [41:10] you were not aware of any studies supporting it. Incredibly, you said the six foot rule sort of just [41:15] appeared and described it as an empiric decision that wasn't based on data. That rule had real consequences. [41:26] Schools didn't open back up. Businesses didn't open back up. Churches didn't open back [41:32] up. I could go on and on and on. And Americans were kept physically separated from one another [41:39] during the most difficult moments of their lives. Many lost loved ones during that time. So, Dr. Fauci, did you [41:49] have any evidence to support a six foot separation rule when you gave that advice to Americans? On the advice of [41:58] counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. All right, well, let's look at the lockdowns then. By 2022, the consequences of prolonged COVID lockdowns on our children were clear. [42:08] From delayed development to social isolation, which is probably why you were asked in July 2022 whether you would recommend locking down schools again. And you said, first of all, I didn't recommend locking anything down. [42:22] But now we have your diary. And it tells a very different story from the one you told the public. And I will quote, I spoke with Bill de Blasio, the mayor of NYC and convinced him based on what I was saying publicly in my conversation tonight to close the NYC schools. [42:39] He had already decided based on what I was saying on TV. I went on to tell him he should close the bars and restaurants in NYC. And he said he would do this based on my recommendation. [42:47] You even said that you told the President we should shut the whole country down. So Dr. Fauci, how do you swear telling the American people publicly that you didn't recommend locking anything down with your own diary entry kept on federal government equipment saying that your recommendation is what convinced the mayor and the president to [43:09] the mayor and the president to lock things down on the advice of counsel i respectfully decline [43:17] to answer based upon my rights under the fifth amendment to the constitution now i just want [43:23] to make clear that when in florida we were pleading with people to give us advice based on scientific [43:30] evidence that we were getting these conflicting statements by you that didn't match scientific [43:41] data and in fact when we impaneled a grand jury the grand jury's conclusion not surprising to anyone [43:49] and by the way we're still the only state to have impaneled a grand jury i was the only attorney [43:54] general to do this we did this in 2023 that conclusion was the lockdown mask and social [44:01] distinct advice administered by federal agencies and implemented by certain local state and federal [44:06] agencies was not based on the best available scientific data in fact many recommendations [44:11] and their accompanying mandates departed significantly from available research again [44:20] people from all walks of life all political persuasions that is what they found and yet [44:26] during that time while you were giving those statements knowing there was no scientific basis [44:30] for it and we know now you knew it because we have your diary entries you called the governor that i [44:38] worked with to fight to keep washington and dc out of our state so that we could indeed respect the rights [44:48] of our citizens you called our governor governor desantis and i'm going to quote this so i get it right [44:55] right out of your journals a total jerk that he is a complete disgrace that he is blocking local [45:04] authorities from mandating masks in various locations including schools and you were very concerned and upset [45:13] that we were actively and i'm going to quote criticizing you and we talked to virtually every day about [45:19] being wrong on everything and what is astounding is that you wrote you feared because of that because [45:28] we were questioning our government because we were fighting back for the truth from our government [45:34] from scientifically based recommendations because we were pushing for that you said you feared that our [45:40] democracy is in dire danger thank goodness we have people up here that i work with to understand our [45:51] role which is to report to our bosses the people because they are in charge calling for our government [46:01] to be honest with us and transparent with us transparent with us and accountable to us that is a [46:09] democracy what you did is the opposite and i cannot believe i have to explain this to someone [46:19] who represented our government and some of the most important issues for so long and before i conclude [46:25] if i can just put up our pardon this is the pardon you have heard so much about and dr falchi the only [46:35] other person that got a pardon like this i believe had a last name of biden this pardon goes back to and [46:42] if you'll see january the first of 2014 did you talk to president biden and ask for this pardon on the [46:52] advice of counsel i respectfully declined to answer based upon my rights under the fifth amendment to the [46:57] constitution who did you talk to in the white house about this pardon on the advice of counsel [47:03] i respectfully declined to answer based upon my rights under the fifth amendment to the constitution [47:07] did you specifically ask that it be dated back to the beginning of 2014 on the advice of counsel i [47:15] respectfully declined to answer based upon my rights under the fifth amendment to the constitution [47:20] did you do that so that you would be given immunity going back to the beginning of 2014 [47:29] on the advice of counsel i respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the fifth [47:34] amendment to the constitution i'm just very interested why it was this date did it have [47:38] anything to do with the fact that 2014 was also the year that the niaid or nih began funding eco [47:46] health alliances understanding the risk of bat coronavirus emergence grant on the advice of [47:53] counsel i respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the fifth amendment to the constitution [47:58] and this is the same grant that funded the work on bat coronaviruses at the wuhan institute on [48:04] virology millions of americans are questioning what happened during covid why we were getting given [48:15] misleading information misleading advice why you gave conflicting statements based on i guess how you [48:22] were feeling that day and americans rightfully we lost over a million americans they should be insulted [48:31] when the democrats insult our chair that he's doing this because he's on an obsessive mission to go [48:37] after one man could his obsession obsessive mission be to find out why american a million americans died [48:45] and who might be responsible for that and where that started could that be his mission dr falchi [48:50] on the advice of counsel i respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the fifth amendment to [49:00] the constitution and after everything we have just walked through can you sit here today [49:04] and tell the american people our bosses that you bear no responsibility for their collapse in trust [49:11] of their government it's based upon my rights under the fifth amendment to the constitution time has expired [49:21] we're going to do another quick round for those who remain about five minutes any questions that [49:28] haven't come up uh that are pressing let's try not to re go over territory that's already been done [49:33] i'll begin by asking unanimous consent to insert into record documents show that show that the cia [49:39] transferred funds to niaid through interagency agreement hearing no objection so ordered [49:46] we had hoped to hear testimony from anthony fauci today we haven't but i think it's important that [49:51] we do hear from him so we will have a video we'll play in a moment for years anthony fauci has been the [50:00] public face of saying this in all likelihood came from nature he kept saying it's the marketplace it's the [50:06] marketplace it's the marketplace he's been saying that on television up until recently but what we find is [50:12] that what he was saying in public is different than what he was saying in private in january in [50:17] private he wrote that looks like the wet market was a super spreader event it didn't originate there [50:23] we know that some of the earliest deaths and sickness came from somewhere else but then for [50:28] years and years we got dishonesty so let's play the video so we can see a little juxtaposition of the [50:34] problem we're dealing with [51:06] markets when you bring animals in from the wild who have these viruses the wet markets in the nation [51:15] where people bring animals from the forest into a market there are wet markets in wuhan that are ample [51:23] opportunity for a virus to jump from an animal the origin was from a bank to an intermediate host to a [51:29] human very likely in a wet market and those animals should not have been in the wuhan market they knew [51:37] that those animals should not have been in the market and they immediately cleaned out the market put [51:43] restrictions on the contains of animals that come into these wet markets i think i should shut down those [51:49] things right away i mean it just it bothers my mind so repeatedly saying in public different something [51:59] different than what he believed in private now this is interesting because you know the first sars outbreak [52:04] in 2000 2003 was traced to a wet market to animals there but interestingly they had evidence they had [52:10] evidence that the animals had the disease they also had evidence that the handlers had a [52:14] disproportionately high number of antibodies to the disease so there was evidence and the evidence was [52:20] presented so when this came out the same thing happened again they did look at the wet market [52:25] they looked at the wet market and tested i think 80 000 animals and didn't find any animals that had [52:29] that had covet 19 when they did find covet 19 and trace samples there they found that the dna or the [52:36] rna was consistent with human spread this was known not later on didn't take years to develop was known in january [52:44] of 2020 and so dr fausty says privately he knows it's it didn't come from the wet market but as you [52:50] saw those were over a multi-year period one of the other discussions i've had with dr fauci over the [52:55] years about natural immunity so uh most infections you get a degree of immunity not perfect some fairly [53:02] perfect smallpox you just don't get again george washington knew this he had his wife get vaccinated [53:07] but he didn't because he'd already had smallpox but there's one particular story that a man came up to [53:13] me and lost his wife to covid he said we all got it we all got sick and my wife ended up getting sick [53:19] enough to the hospital but they we'd recovered two weeks she was still alive two to three weeks later [53:25] we'd all recovered and they wouldn't let us be with her and to this day it's one of the saddest [53:30] things and it just you know it i think all of us should think about this they were not allowed to [53:34] visit their mom he wasn't allowed to visit his wife in the hospital but based on this misunderstanding [53:39] of natural immunity that for some reason two weeks later they were a problem but this was all [53:44] promulgated by you we had the uh workers in the uh you know the meat factories they were essential they [53:50] had to keep working most of them got covid they got it in the first couple weeks most of them were [53:54] younger the reassurance should have come from public health the reassurance should have said congratulations [54:00] you've recovered it also should be acknowledged what's the number one thing we can do if we get [54:04] another pandemic before we have a vaccine before we have monoclonal antibodies it would be to utilize [54:10] natural immunity so instead of the advice you were giving to cuomo and others in new york that led to [54:16] the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people or tens of thousands of people you could have been saying [54:21] well maybe the nurses taking care of the elderly should be people who are two weeks out from covet [54:25] infection we could have used natural immunity as somewhat of a block of protection imperfect but the [54:32] only protection we had and the only thing we could have done instead the nursing homes were seated [54:38] seated with people who had covet so i think the discussion of natural immunity is one where [54:43] there wasn't sufficient honesty humility there wasn't enough presentation to encourage people that [54:48] was the only encouraging thing we had for a while is you've got it you're very very if not impossible [54:55] close to impossible chance that you'll die if you get it again everybody could have been reassured [54:59] nobody was reassured it's like well we don't know we just don't quite understand natural immunity [55:04] my favorite quote from that is from martin coldor from from uh harvard you called him one of the [55:09] people he had to take down the fringe epidemiologist which i've never ever heard a scientist call another [55:14] scientist that but uh he jokingly said on twitter he said yeah we knew about natural immunity from 486 bc from [55:22] the time of the athenian plague we lost all knowledge of it in 2020. the good news is it's slowly coming back [55:30] 24 to 20 25 we're beginning to understand what natural immunity is again not something perfect [55:36] but a useful tool that could have been used but also something that could have helped people by [55:41] telling the public my goodness you're not going to die now you have a chance if you've already had [55:45] it you're 85 years old you're at risk for it you're wanting to feed your wife and they're telling [55:49] you to wear four masks and not be around your wife when you've already had it it made no sense [55:54] i visited with a man whose mom was 83 and she was dying from covid they go to the hospital in orange [56:02] county they won't admit her to the hospital till she's vaccinated because we have a policy that [56:07] everybody in the hospital must be vaccinated she's got covid and they wanted to vaccinate her again [56:12] at one point in time the cdc understood this they told people don't get vaccinated if you've had [56:18] covid within three months why because it may give you a heightened immune response when you've [56:22] already got a heightened immune response but giving a person very sick and many of the people [56:26] who died from covid died from so to this this uh storm of uh of of response this immune storm the [56:34] the answer wouldn't be try to stir up their immune response more by giving them a vaccine the answer [56:38] was actually steroids and good old-fashioned steroids 37 percent reduction in death it turned out to be way [56:44] more value than remdesivir way more valuable than any of the other treatments but i don't remember [56:49] ever hearing a complimentary word on natural immunity or steroids or anything else and you [56:54] know i wish we could have done more today i would have been willing to accept an apology today [56:59] i'm sorry i made mistakes we all made mistakes and you know at the time i thought the gain of [57:04] function research was you know the risks of it were worth the benefits but um but i've reassessed since [57:10] 15 million people died people say well gosh these things never happen we know it happened in 1977 we know [57:16] with a hundred percent certainty a virus escaped in 1977 there's something called the russian flu [57:22] nobody's exactly positive how it got out but when they sequenced it they found out that a flu in 1977 [57:28] had exactly the same rna as a 1954 one that they had in the lab and they had created a vaccine for [57:35] in fact turns out anybody born before 1954 was immune and the only people got it were people who had [57:41] born between 1954 and 1977 but it was identical the the genetic sequence was identical to this vaccine [57:49] or the virus from 1954 and that doesn't happen because these respiratory viruses are always mutating [57:54] to be identical means it had to have leaked from the lab proof positive that it had so we know this [57:59] happens uh uh an author by the name of young wrote a book and said there was 1200 cases of significant [58:07] accidents that have occurred we knew all of this and yet it was completely discounted because i think [58:13] you were worried that if it was seen that you funded dangerous research to start the pandemic you'd [58:18] get blamed and it was a concerted effort wasn't just you anybody associated with the funding decided we [58:25] needed to protect ourselves senator johnson mr chairman you mentioned that we lost knowledge of [58:31] natural immunity i didn't dr fauci did i suppose i had an asymptomatic case of covid because of the [58:38] very faulty pcr test i never got vaccinated there's or injected there's no way i would have done that [58:43] because i found out enough about the mrna gene therapy but you also brought up the issue of hospital [58:50] protocols i'm going to be holding a public event on hospital protocols we've already received a couple [58:56] hundred testimonies they are heart-wrenching they are heart-wrenching here's an [59:02] excerpt from the testimony of a staff surgeon very experienced you know doctor for decades [59:08] at providence regional medical center everett washington quote after our hospital was given [59:13] remdesivir by the cdc we were provided misleading inaccurate information about the drug biomedical [59:19] leadership when i had a young trauma patient who was a perfect candidate for remdesivir the infectious [59:25] disease doctor on call told me to not give it to her because quote she seemed like a nice girl [59:32] he concludes it was known early the remdesivir kills i said nurses referred to it as run [59:40] death is near so again i've always been okay i was never made sense to me that we put all of our eggs [59:46] in the experimental gene therapy um if you knew anything about it would have you would have avoided [59:53] it like a plague and we didn't we sabotaged early treatment but the only treatment we really approved [59:59] monoclonal antibodies which i think basically worked pretty well but those weren't particularly [1:00:03] available they were denied an awful lot of patients it was all remdesivir based on a study that the nih [1:00:11] changed the endpoint from mortality because it had no impact on mortality today's recovery a drug that [1:00:17] the who recommended against its use in covid in november of 2020 but a drug that cost over three thousand [1:00:24] dollars for a course of treatment versus things like ivermectin hydroxychloroquine who even dr fauci and [1:00:32] it i should have got that one out because i want to take this time to enter things in the record [1:00:36] said you know we need to have a very tight protocol on remdesivir because it's unknown but hydroxychloroquine [1:00:41] i mean that's approved some side effects but we have a long history of it let's put up my my latest [1:00:46] chart again i was tracking adverse events on on the inspire experimental injection uh but i i use this [1:00:54] chart as a comparison so you've got ivermectin hydroxychloroquine these are average again evaers doesn't [1:01:01] improve core causation but you know there's correlation it's there it's there for safety [1:01:06] signals so ivermectin over 30 years of fda reports 17 deaths per year hydroxychloroquine over 38 years [1:01:14] of reporting 142 deaths per year remdesivir over five and a half years 546 deaths per year the covid [1:01:25] injection almost 7 000 deaths per year what which is safest what what did the fda freak us out about [1:01:32] ivermectin hydroxychloroquine when they turn a complete blinds eye toward the injections injury [1:01:38] so i want to enter the quote from the surgeon by the way here's here's the answer uh cheryl atkinson [1:01:45] in an interview said that when it comes to money we check financial ties among experts on the government [1:01:49] panel devising coronavirus treatment guidelines which had the effect of dialing back hydroxychloroquine use [1:01:55] and giving an edge to remdesivir we found the 11 members reporting links to a drug company nine of [1:02:00] them named relationships to remdesivir's maker gilead seven more including two of the committee [1:02:05] leaders have ties to gilead beyond the 11 months they had to disclose two were on gilead's advisory [1:02:11] board others were paid consultants who received research support and honoraria by the way within [1:02:16] the study i think one of the study participants was employee of gilead a bunch also had conflicts [1:02:22] with gilead so gee i wonder why you know their conflicts of interest gilead made billions of dollars [1:02:27] off remdesivir and people died um in terms of uh ignoring safety signals you can probably put that [1:02:33] down now uh this has come to light this is dr drew weissman who got the nobel prize for the mrna [1:02:41] platform he wrote to dr fauci on february 8th of 2020. tony i wanted to alert you to some new data [1:02:48] we generated with our mrna lnp vaccine now it was a higher fold dose but that mrna lnp go to the placenta [1:02:57] and fetus measured by translation of the mrna and cause of immune response in the amniotic fluid [1:03:05] so that same day dr fauci responds it'd be interesting to see what human dose levels given [1:03:13] intermuscular do so about a month later dr weissman replies he said we still have some concerns over [1:03:22] the data after they tested im now again there's more documentation in terms of the fda blew it off [1:03:28] it's like ah don't worry about that that was the whole thing that's that's what peter marx did when [1:03:33] he was said shown that uh his algorithm was going to mass safety signals the last thing i want to [1:03:38] enter in the record here is and i want to make the point you know why is this important that that [1:03:46] they buried the treatment of severely injection injured the fact that we haven't acknowledged [1:03:52] these injection injuries these people can't get treatment they're being gaslit by their doctors [1:03:57] so it's all in your head the rate of the injection injured of suicides is increasing because they've [1:04:03] given up hope because our medical establishment federal health agencies completely failed them [1:04:08] failing to acknowledge it so again dr nath was treating diagnosing treating injection injured in [1:04:13] march of 2021 this concerned people so you had dr walter koroshetz writes dr fauci one of the points [1:04:24] you may there's been a steady slow stream of reports to me of post vaccination neurological conditions [1:04:30] dr nath has been collecting a bunch he has reports sent out to publish well that alarmed everybody [1:04:37] boy you can't let the public know what's actually happening you can't actually let the public know [1:04:42] what the science is showing so on uh april 29th a email from francis collins head of nih to that to dr [1:04:52] koroshetz says i find this approach troubling and will have the main consequence of feeding vaccine [1:04:59] hesitancy and social media over overreaction then dr lawrence tabic writes to francis collins i don't [1:05:08] understand what walter why walter does not shut this thing down why don't you shut down that dr nath who's [1:05:16] actually treating injection injured why because of vaccine hesitancy and because we haven't acknowledged [1:05:24] that and the reason i've been advocating for this is because i know the injection injured i know people [1:05:30] who lost love lost loved ones within days of the injection and we've turned our backs on them they [1:05:38] deserve acknowledgement they deserve to be heard seen and believed so they can get treatment i also know [1:05:45] the doctors whose careers were destroyed because you denigrated things like ivermectin and denied ivermectin [1:05:52] to people in hospitals who got their kidneys knocked out by the randesivir but got put on ventilators [1:05:59] never got to hug their loved ones goodbye because those hospital protocols that's what your science [1:06:06] did to people so dr fauci my only question is based on your lack of testimony here today uh based quite [1:06:13] honestly on our our investigation into the cover-up of safety signals and injection injuries we have [1:06:21] issued letters to a number of former fda officials to come in for transcribed interviews you'll be getting [1:06:26] a letter today asking for a volunteer try screen transcribed interview so i'd be asking will you [1:06:33] comply or will i have to subpoena you on the advice of counsel i respectfully decline to answer [1:06:39] based upon my rights under the fifth amendment to the constitution expected subpoena thank you [1:06:45] senator scott dr fauci did you personally receive any royalty payments connected to covet related [1:06:51] intellectual property on the advice of counsel i respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights [1:06:57] under the fifth amendment to the constitution given that nih receives royalty payments from certain [1:07:02] pharmaceutical companies why would any american believe these financial ties did not influence [1:07:06] decisions about which treatments were promoted or restricted on the advice of counsel i respectfully [1:07:12] decline to answer based upon my rights under the fifth amendment to the constitution why doesn't [1:07:18] niaid publicly disclose these payments on the advice of counsel i respectfully decline to answer based [1:07:25] upon my rights under the fifth amendment to the constitution did you partner with bill gates [1:07:30] on global health initiatives on global health initiatives or vaccines on the advice of counsel [1:07:35] i respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the fifth amendment to the constitution [1:07:40] how much did bill gates entities providing funding to niaid collectively since 2005 on the advice of [1:07:46] counsel i respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the fifth amendment to the constitution [1:07:51] to your knowledge of bill gates partnered with china on sensitive research on the advice of [1:07:57] counsel i respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the fifth amendment to the constitution [1:08:02] Specifically dual use research such as countermeasures or gain of function? [1:08:08] On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. [1:08:14] Do you know if Bill Gates entities partnered with U.S. government classified programs? [1:08:18] On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. [1:08:24] Do you know if Bill Gates maintains an active national security clearance? [1:08:28] On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. [1:08:33] Did you advocate a request for Bill Gates to receive a security clearance? [1:08:38] On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. [1:08:43] Do you have any knowledge that NIAID or NIH through HHS sponsored or requested a security clearance for Bill Gates? [1:08:51] On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. [1:08:56] Around 2010, my understanding is that the government shifted its approach to biodefense countermeasure research. [1:09:01] Did NIAID, under your leadership, partner with the Obama White House or any other U.S. government-classified entities on sensitive countermeasures research? [1:09:10] On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. [1:09:16] Did your office take steps to drive biological research investments? [1:09:21] On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. [1:09:27] What was private industry's take on the type of research in the 2010 timeframe and before? [1:09:30] On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. [1:09:37] Was it considered too dangerous to conduct an industry that was hesitant to take this on and invest in? [1:09:43] On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. [1:09:49] Why did you take steps to mature the government's approach to biodefense? [1:09:53] On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. [1:09:59] Were there any specific lines of effort or actions you felt were needed during this time [1:10:03] to improve the research, development, and fielding model? [1:10:07] On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. [1:10:13] How was dual use and gain-of-function incorporated or accounted for in maturing biodefense countermeasures? [1:10:19] On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. [1:10:24] Did you ever discuss moving gain-of-function, countermeasures, research out of government space to private industry space? [1:10:30] On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. [1:10:37] How were these private organizations regulated through government oversight while conducting risky research, including gain-of-function or gene-editing technology? [1:10:45] On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. [1:10:50] Did the Obama White House or any government entities take steps to inject funding into private industry? [1:10:56] On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. [1:11:01] How do you ensure that our national security and public health is protected when private organizations work with foreign countries of concern [1:11:07] and have the no-government oversight, such as the EcoHealth Alliance research grant you funded in a CCP military lab? [1:11:17] On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. [1:11:23] Did any, given the culture of the pay-to-play at NIAID, did you or anyone acting on your behalf make any payment or enter any arrangement [1:11:33] in any way or fashion to secure or influence the broad pardon you received from President Biden? [1:11:39] On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. [1:11:45] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. [1:11:46] I'd like to ask unanimous consent to enter into the record a letter from the Department of Energy [1:11:51] that confirms during Anthony Fauci's tenure that Bill Gates was given Q security clearance from 2014 to 2021. [1:12:02] Without objection, that will be entered into the record. [1:12:04] I'd also ask unanimous consent to enter into the record the contents of the folder of authorities provided to Dr. Fauci, including the pardon. [1:12:19] Let's be clear today, you know, what we've seen. [1:12:23] I really did want to hear from Dr. Fauci. [1:12:26] I wanted to hear perhaps an apology, perhaps some semblance of being sorry for what happened or that judgment errors were made. [1:12:36] We didn't hear any of that. [1:12:38] But he was subpoenaed here to testify, refused to answer any questions, even after being directed by the chair [1:12:44] and being advised of the law requiring him to do so. [1:12:47] He has cited a privilege that is unsupported because of his blanket pardon [1:12:51] and because he waived the privilege by testifying at the start. [1:12:55] I'm going to give you one more opportunity to comply with the law. [1:12:59] Limited to the period of your pardon, at any point between January 1st, 2014 and January 19th, 2025, [1:13:09] did you destroy any federal record or tell anyone else to? [1:13:12] Under the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. [1:13:23] Given that you have an unlimited presidential pardon, what is your specific objection that you are making? [1:13:32] On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. [1:13:38] My question was limited to the period of your pardon only. [1:13:40] I find your objection unsupported and direct you to answer the question. [1:13:45] On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. [1:13:51] Because you refuse to answer, citing a privilege that is unsupported because of your pardon, [1:13:57] and after being denied to do so, this committee has scheduled a vote next week on a resolution certifying your contempt. [1:14:05] I think we have another question or two from Senator Langford. [1:14:11] Mr. Chairman, really, this is a question for you, and it's a question to try to figure out how do we get a good answer on this. [1:14:17] Because, clearly, Dr. Fauci's attorneys were saying that he has a Fifth Amendment right. [1:14:23] We've also subpoenaed him to be able to compel his testimony to be able to be here. [1:14:28] I happen to be in the committee where we're also dealing with Lois Lerner. [1:14:32] Lois Lerner came and testified, gave an opening statement, and then took the Fifth Amendment. [1:14:39] The committee then held her in contempt for that, saying you can't do both. [1:14:43] You can't both testify and say I'm not going to answer questions. [1:14:47] So the parliamentary question that I think we've got to be able to deal with is, is this consistent with Lois Lerner? [1:14:53] What she also did when she came before Congress, gave an opening statement, testimony, so made a statement, and then refused to answer questions. [1:15:01] Are we dealing with the same issue here where someone is making, you can't make a statement and say I'm not going to make statements at the same time? [1:15:08] I think it's a very good question. [1:15:10] I think that's something all of us will examine over the next week. [1:15:13] We're going to have a vote next week on contempt. [1:15:15] I think there's another legal question that the courts may have to decide upon, and that is whether or not a presidential pardon that offers you complete immunity, that you can still claim that you need protection from immunity when you've been protected. [1:15:31] Because Dr. Fauci isn't liable for anything, as long as he tells the truth, even if he admits that he destroyed records on a routine basis. [1:15:38] His assistant said she destroyed a ton of emails. [1:15:41] I think it was a routine thing. [1:15:43] I think he destroyed throughout his career, there are probably thousands of emails. [1:15:48] Even if he did that, as long as he answered truthfully, yes, I did. [1:15:51] I didn't think that was important. [1:15:53] I made a mistake. [1:15:55] You can't be prosecuted for it. [1:15:57] Many of the things are outside the statute of limitations as well. [1:16:00] All he had to do today if he wanted to testify was to be honest. [1:16:03] As long as he was honest, even about committing a crime, he would have no jeopardy. [1:16:07] But I think the pardon has given him more immunity than most people would ever get. [1:16:12] If you offer a witness immunity in exchange for testimony, he has blanket immunity. [1:16:17] The president gave him blanket immunity for virtually anything he could have possibly done while at NIH. [1:16:23] So I think we all have to individually answer this question. [1:16:27] We welcome you to be part of helping us figure out the question. [1:16:31] But there will be a vote, at least right now, that will be planned to be a vote next week on contempt. [1:16:36] Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. [1:16:37] Today will be the capstone to Anthony Fauci's 40 years of abuse of power at NIH. [1:16:44] In the end, you must imagine, Fauci believes he got away with it. [1:16:48] But still, late at night, even the guilty must become anxious, rerunning the scenarios through his mind, [1:16:53] wondering, latching on to lingering doubts, and worrying, [1:16:57] did his actions lead to the largest man-made plague in human history? [1:17:01] Are the millions dead the result of his experiments or experiments that he approved [1:17:05] that increased the pathogenicity of deadly viruses? [1:17:09] History will judge, but the facts as we now know them paint a sordid tale of dishonesty, [1:17:15] misjudgment, and ultimately the hubris, the likes of which the world has rarely seen. [1:17:20] If everyone will remain seated for a few minutes, we're going to let Dr. Fauci exit. [1:17:24] Thank you. [1:17:25] Thank you.