{"id":1275,"date":"2026-07-30T20:15:24","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T20:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/?p=1275"},"modified":"2026-07-30T20:15:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T20:15:24","slug":"the-next-victim-of-trumps-political-prosecutions-congressional-oversight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/?p=1275","title":{"rendered":"The Next Victim of Trump\u2019s Political Prosecutions? Congressional Oversight."},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Anthony<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Dr. Anthony Fauci,<\/span> who helped lead the national response to the Covid-19 pandemic as the country\u2019s longtime chief infectious disease expert, invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination at least 90 times Wednesday in a contentious hearing focused on the origins of the virus in China. Fauci was clear about his reason for pleading the 5th: He believes the hearing was a set-up for a perjury investigation by the Justice Department\u2014a realistic assessment of how the Trump administration is wielding its prosecutorial powers to go after people the president doesn\u2019t like.<\/p>

Read more How Anti-ICE Protesters Became Prisoners in Trump\u2019s War on Antifa<\/a><\/p>\n

The hearing was chaired by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a harsh Fauci critic. \u201cGiven Senator Paul\u2019s obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution, his repeated slanderous comments about me, and recently his publicly releasing my unredacted personal diary aimed at embarrassing and intimidating me,\u201d the NIH veteran said in his opening statement, \u201cthe only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, \u2018behind bars.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t a hypothetical concern, and it\u2019s not simply animated by Paul\u2019s animosity toward Fauci. Congressional Republicans and the Justice Department, now under the control of former Trump lawyer Todd Blanche, have repeatedly used testimony to gin up perjury investigations and charges against people the president doesn\u2019t like. That\u2019s turned testimony before Congress\u2014which should be a public service sharing information to inform our laws\u2014intothe first step toward a criminal investigation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Just a week ago, House Judiciary Committee chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) the DOJ a criminal referral accusing former special counsel Jack Smith of lying to Congress in testimony last December. During his confirmation hearing, Blanche told the Senate that the department, like his boss the president, is serious about investigating Smith. Similarly, federal prosecutors are already investigating former CIA director John Brennan, a Trump critic, over testimony he gave in 2023, also via a Jordan referral. Perjury before Congress is also one of the speciouscharges the department unsuccessfully brought against former FBI Director James Comey. An accusation of lying to Congressis alsohow the DOJ set out to pressure and possibly oust Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell before that investigation was dropped to smooth the way for Senate confirmation of Kevin Warsh as Fed chair.<\/p>\n

Though wise as a form<\/span> of self-preservation, it\u2019s unclear if Fauci\u2019s use of the Fifth is kosher. On Bluesky, Georgetown Law professor Josh Chafetz commented that he didn\u2019t see a legal basis for it. \u201cIt certainly sounds like Fauci is saying that he thinks Paul is trying to trick him into perjuring himself,\u201d he posted. \u201cBut that can\u2019t justify invoking the Fifth Amendment, otherwise anyone could get out of testifying anytime by claiming that, if they testified, they might lie. That can\u2019t be right.\u201d Later, he added, \u201cI don\u2019t want a world in which witnesses get to decide for themselves whether or not a congressional investigation is a farce and therefore whether or not they\u2019ll \u2018play along.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Clearly, Fauci\u2019s lawyers don\u2019t think the threat of prosecution is idle, and there are at least four other former officials they can point to explain why. At the close of the hearing, Paul said the committee would meet next week to vote on holding\u00a0Fauci in contempt of Congress, which would have to be upheld by a vote in the full Senate.<\/p>\n

Paul could have assuaged Fauci\u2019s fears and elicited testimony in the public interest if the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee had granted him immunity for anything said in his testimony, a rare move but one within the committee\u2019s power. In Fauci\u2019s case, this would not have let him off the hook for any crime that theoretically could come to light during questioning\u2014because President Joe Biden already did that when he granted Fauci a sweeping, preemptive pardon covering the his last nine years in government. <\/p>\n

Some Republicans on the committee argued that this pardon meansFauci shouldn\u2019t be able to plead the Fifth. \u201cYou don\u2019t have any rights under the Fifth Amendment because you\u2019ve been pardoned, as you very well know,\u201d Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said. Paul said the question is unsettled. But Fauci\u2019s lawyers evidently disagree; indeed, it makes little sense that a perjury investigation into current statements would be ruled out by a pardon for past offenses.<\/p>

Read more The Kushner-Backed FIFA Takeover Tearing the Soccer World Apart<\/a><\/p>\n

Either way, the politicization of DOJ complicates the situation: Fauci might not fear actually committing perjury, but it is reasonable to assume that he was at risk of saying something that could form the basis of an investigation that could drain his bank account and make life much more difficult for years, even if it doesn\u2019t end in a guilty verdict.<\/p>\n

Bynot offering immunity, Republicans on the committee are preserving the possibility of an investigation based on his testimony. That tells us that Paul and his fellow Republicans are more interested in prosecuting Fauci than learning more about the origins of Covid-19.<\/p>\n

Wherever the courts come<\/span> down on Fauci pleading the Fifth, it\u2019s yet another example of how the theory of expansive presidential power endorsed by the Supreme Court and deployed by this president crashes into not just norms, but also laws and the Constitution. Over the past few years, the court\u2019s Republican-appointed majority has increasingly expanded the powers of the president and clarified that the prosecutorial functions at DOJ are not independent enforcement of the rule of law but rather under the sole purview of the president, who can even direct completely unfounded prosecutions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In his second term, Trump has embraced this power as he demands the prosecutions of his perceived enemies. One result is a loss of faith in the Justice Department. Ironically, on Wednesday evening, Senate Republicans delayed a vote to confirm Trump\u2019s next pick for attorney general, Todd Blanche, because Blanche would not commit to reversing his decision to give Trump immunity from tax investigations\u2014an indication that Blanche, currently the acting attorney general, is not just working at the behest of Trump to punish the president\u2019s critics, but using the DOJ to prevent any scrutiny of his actions. It\u2019s the latest sign that the DOJ has been transformed from an entity walled-off from presidential interference to one in which the president calls all the shots.<\/p>\n

But the Fauci debacle shows thatthe blast radius goes far beyond DOJ\u2019s sullied reputation and political vendettas. Prosecutors going on fishing expeditions through congressionaltestimony at the behest of a vengeful president will ultimately harm lawmakers\u2019 ability to do the critical work ofholding hearings and gathering testimony,along withwitnesses\u2019 ability to give that testimony. Fauci was compelled to testify under subpoena, and yet Congress was still deprived of his answers.<\/p>\n

Pleading the Fifth is not a clean solution for Fauci either; he couldstill be prosecuted if the Senate votes to hold him in contempt. If that happens, then the courts\u2014even the Supreme Court, which helped create this mess\u2014may ultimately decide how to resolve the spreading fallout from a politicized prosecutorial machine. Will Fifth Amendment rights win out over Congress\u2019 fact-finding powers? Or will Congressional testimony become an accepted precursor to unwarranted criminal investigation? Either way, the problem lies not with Fauci, butwith the weaponization of the Justice Department.<\/p>

Read more Democrats Call For Ethics Investigation into Congressman Max Miller<\/a><\/p>\n<\/article>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anthony Fauci didn\u2019t want to give his enemies ammunition, but his freedom isn\u2019t the only thing at risk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Next Victim of Trump\u2019s Political Prosecutions? Congressional Oversight. - Moving and Mortgage Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/?p=1275\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Next Victim of Trump\u2019s Political Prosecutions? 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