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Legal analysis on whether Dr. Anthony Fauci can be punished for invoking Fifth Amendment · DEEP INSIGHT

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  Speaker 1: Florida's Attorney general is launching an investigation into doctor Anthony Fauci.
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  Speaker 1: Following today's contentious Senate hearing on the handling of the
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  Speaker 1: coronavirus pandemic. James Uthmeier criticized Fauci's quote lack of candor
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  Speaker 1: to Congress. He added that it's past time we get
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  Speaker 1: to the truth of what happened during COVID. Earlier today,
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  Speaker 1: Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment more than one hundred times
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  Speaker 1: before the Senate Homeland Security Committee. In his opening remarks,
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  Speaker 1: the eighty five year old explained his concerns about why
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  Speaker 1: Kentucky Republican Senator Rampaul, who chairs the committee, subpointed him
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  Speaker 1: in the first place.
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  Speaker 2: The only conclusion I can reach is that the sole
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  Speaker 2: reason he is calling me before this committee is to
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  Speaker 2: get me to say something, anything that could vindicate his
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  Speaker 2: repeated public pledges that I end up in his words
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  Speaker 2: quote behind bars.
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  Speaker 1: After the three hour hearing ended, Senator Paul told reporters
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  Speaker 1: he plans to schedule to vote next week to hold
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  Speaker 1: doctor Fauci in contempt of Congress. Sibbie's News legal contributor
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  Speaker 1: Jessica Levinson joins US Now She's also a professor of
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  Speaker 1: at Loyal La Law School in Los Angeles. So, Jessica,
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  Speaker 1: did doctor Fauci have the right to invoke the Fifth Amendment?
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  Speaker 1: Can he get punished or held in contempt for doing so?
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  Speaker 3: So? Yes, and yes, he absolutely has the right like
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  Speaker 3: the rest of us to invoke his right against self incrimination.
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  Speaker 3: The question is whether or not, as you said, he
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  Speaker 3: could be held in contempt for exercising that right, and
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  Speaker 3: I think the answer is likely not, but only because
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  Speaker 3: President Biden issued a broad pardon for doctor Fauci. And
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  Speaker 3: so the idea is that if you are pardoned, if
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  Speaker 3: you can't face any criminal liability, at least with respect
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  Speaker 3: to federal crimes, then you should potentially be forced to
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  Speaker 3: answer that you shouldn't be able to invoke your Fifth
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  Speaker 3: Amendment right without rep percussions. I will say there's a
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  Speaker 3: huge caveat to that, which is that a pardon, of course,
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  Speaker 3: can only cover the moment until the pardon or this
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  Speaker 3: particular parton did and it doesn't cover state crimes. So
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  Speaker 3: it is possible that doctor Fauci could say, look, I
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  Speaker 3: was still worried that I was facing criminal liability, both
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  Speaker 3: with respect to potential future crimes and with respect to
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  Speaker 3: state crimes, and that's why I invoked my constitutional right.
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  Speaker 1: So what could be a state crime here? Now that
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  Speaker 1: Florida's investigating?
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  Speaker 3: So obviously, I think investigation, I just want to emphasize
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  Speaker 3: is very different from we are bringing up a criminal complaint.
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  Speaker 3: I think what they would try to look at is
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  Speaker 3: potential false statements. Those are typically things that I will say,
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  Speaker 3: you would see brought by the federal government. When it
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  Speaker 3: comes to the state government and state crimes, they would
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  Speaker 3: have to go beyond we are investigating to finding that
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  Speaker 3: either there's some sort of state crime that would amount
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  Speaker 3: to again, maybe false statements, or they think that there's
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  Speaker 3: another state crime involving what potentially what happened in Florida,
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  Speaker 3: particularly with respect to the response during the COVID pandemic.
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  Speaker 1: What would a state like Why Florida?
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  Speaker 3: So, I mean, I think what we're seeing, and I
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  Speaker 3: don't know how else to say this, is that people
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  Speaker 3: are seeing doctor Fauci through a political lens. So why Florida?
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  Speaker 3: I mean, Florida would argue that they were damaged as
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  Speaker 3: a result of things that doctor Fauci did, and specifically
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  Speaker 3: that that damage amounts to state crimes. But I will say, unfortunately,
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  Speaker 3: this is like so many other things, splintering along political lines,
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  Speaker 3: where you have democratic states who I don't think would
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  Speaker 3: go after doctor Fauci or say we're investigating. And at
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  Speaker 3: this point it's only one state, Florida, and Florida has
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  Speaker 3: for a long time been politically at odds with doctor
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  Speaker 3: Fauci saying we will now initiate a legal investigation, lindsay,
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  Speaker 3: which I think is a long way of saying, here
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  Speaker 3: again we see the joining of political disagreements and a
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  Speaker 3: legal investigation.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, So one more along those lines. We've got Fauci's
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  Speaker 1: journal entries. They were released prior to the hearing. They
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  Speaker 1: were discovered on government servers. I think it's still unclear
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  Speaker 1: whether it was a government device using a government account,
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  Speaker 1: exactly how they were on those servers. But is there
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  Speaker 1: any legal recourse he could pursue over their release?
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  Speaker 3: This is such an important question, and I think particularly
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  Speaker 3: because people are worried, well, I take notes, I have
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  Speaker 3: a journal. Could this at some point be you know,
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  Speaker 3: show up in public. Could it be subpoenaed by the Senate.
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  Speaker 3: So a couple of things. We know that doctor Fauci
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  Speaker 3: was subpoena. But with respect to his journal entries, the
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  Speaker 3: reporting indicates that RFK Junior, as head of HHS, said
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  Speaker 3: that there was inform particularly with respect to these diaries
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  Speaker 3: and journals, that was found on government servers, and that
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  Speaker 3: he decided that it was in the interest of transparency
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  Speaker 3: to provide that information. Now, could doctor Fauci try and
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  Speaker 3: bring a claim against HHS or against members of the Senate.
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  Speaker 3: Does he have any recourse? I think the answer is
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  Speaker 3: only if he can say this is privileged, or if
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  Speaker 3: he could say that he had a reasonable expectation of
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  Speaker 3: privacy in these journal entries that could overcome the fact
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  Speaker 3: that apparently they were on government servers and potentially use
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  Speaker 3: government equipment. I use it the words apparently, you know
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  Speaker 3: me well, apparently and potentially are doing a lot of
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  Speaker 3: work here.
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  Speaker 1: All right, Jessica Levinson, thank you,