A Senate committee voted to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress and refer him to the Justice Department for potential prosecution over his refusal to answer questions at a hearing last week focused on his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Poor guy was screwed either way. It was a no-win situation for him.
If he answered the questions they would have demonized him for his answers and prosecuted him on some bullshit charges.
If he pleaded the fifth (which he did) they would have demonized him for that. And prosecuted him for contempt.
And the whole argument that he has a pre-emptive pardon from Biden is bullshit. This administration - with the judicial system firmly in their pocket - will find a way to dismiss that if they need to.
I mean, the prosecutor (?) admitted it on Fox News that they’re trying to trap him into perjuring himself… the whole thing should’ve been shut down at that very point.
This is quite literally the entire reason the 5th amendment exists, in the first place. If someone is trying to trap you into incriminating yourself, you have every right to simply not play along.
Pardons can only be retrospective: they can only cover past events. So Biden (or any president) cannot pardon someone for a contempt charge that relates to a court appearance that happened after that president left office. So no chicanery required.
But the notion that you can be held in contempt of Congress for pleading the Fifth is insanely unjust. Which is not to say that the corrupt Supreme Court wouldn’t uphold it.
Poor guy was screwed either way. It was a no-win situation for him.
If he answered the questions they would have demonized him for his answers and prosecuted him on some bullshit charges.
If he pleaded the fifth (which he did) they would have demonized him for that. And prosecuted him for contempt.
And the whole argument that he has a pre-emptive pardon from Biden is bullshit. This administration - with the judicial system firmly in their pocket - will find a way to dismiss that if they need to.
I mean, the prosecutor (?) admitted it on Fox News that they’re trying to trap him into perjuring himself… the whole thing should’ve been shut down at that very point.
This is quite literally the entire reason the 5th amendment exists, in the first place. If someone is trying to trap you into incriminating yourself, you have every right to simply not play along.
Pardons can only be retrospective: they can only cover past events. So Biden (or any president) cannot pardon someone for a contempt charge that relates to a court appearance that happened after that president left office. So no chicanery required.
But the notion that you can be held in contempt of Congress for pleading the Fifth is insanely unjust. Which is not to say that the corrupt Supreme Court wouldn’t uphold it.
“Congressman, I was force to recommend quarantine lockdowns by the Anti-Trump deep state.”
“Right after the deep state forced the Chinese government to leak a virus from a lab and claim it came from a market.”
The amount of bullshit Republicans are coming up with to distract from real issues such as releasing the rest of the Epstein files is amazing.