House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said Monday that a personal diary kept by Dr. Anthony Fauci during the COVID-19 pandemic may contain some of the strongest evidence yet that Fauci misled Americans and concealed critical information about the origins of the virus.
The Kentucky Republican alleged that the Department of Health and Human Services under then-Secretary Xavier Becerra deliberately failed to provide Congress with the diary despite a sweeping subpoena seeking Fauci-related records.
“When we first began the investigation of Dr. Fauci, we subpoenaed all documentation from Becerra, 100% of everything that they had on Dr. Fauci,” Comer said to “National Report.”
“Now, we know they intentionally withheld the diary,” he added.
Comer’s committee has accused Becerra’s HHS of withholding both Fauci’s diary and his government-issued cellphone after Congress requested records in 2023 concerning COVID-19, gain-of-function research and the origins of the virus in Wuhan, China.
Earlier this month, Comer sent a letter to Becerra, who is now running as a Democrat for governor of California, demanding that he provide answers about the matter by Sept. 2.
According to Comer, investigators also uncovered evidence that Fauci instructed people working under him to avoid documenting certain communications in email.
“Dr. Fauci told his subordinates not to put anything in email because he didn’t want a paper chain,” Comer said, calling it a deliberate effort to avoid a paper trail during “one of the most significant times in the history of our nation.”
Comer accused Fauci of presenting himself publicly as an indispensable figure in the nation’s pandemic response while privately withholding information involving the possibility of a Wuhan laboratory connection and the use of taxpayer money for gain-of-function research.
He said Fauci “portrayed himself as the one American hero” while “he intentionally covered up things” related to the Wuhan lab’s role in the pandemic’s origin and taxpayer funding of gain-of-function research.
During Senate testimony in July, Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment rights more than 100 times. Senate Republicans subsequently referred a contempt of Congress charge to the Justice Department. A pardon granted by then-President Joe Biden before leaving office protects Fauci from federal prosecution for covered conduct but does not prevent potential state-level action.
“There are a number of attorneys general in various states that are also now investigating Dr. Fauci,” Comer said.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is examining whether Fauci personally benefited financially from the COVID-19 guidance he issued, while West Virginia Attorney General John McCuskey and Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill have launched related investigations.
Fauci’s attorneys have recently created a legal defense fund to help cover the mounting costs of responding to the various investigations. Attorney David Schertler said Fauci is “facing an unprecedented legal barrage for a retired civil servant.”
{Matzav.com}
