Democrats Doom Rand Paul’s Push To Compel Testimony From Mystery Witness In Fauci Case

Democratic senators doomed Sen. Rand Paul’s effort to seek testimony from a longtime special assistant to Anthony Fauci who allegedly destroyed federal records on his behalf.

The “resolution authorizing an application for a court order compelling testimony under immunity” would have immunized the aide from potential criminal charges related to her testimony about the destruction of federal records. Paul said he hoped it would allow her to share what she knows about Fauci’s efforts to contain and suppress public discussion of a potential leak from the coronavirus lab in Wuhan and his institute’s ties to the lab.

But Democrats voted down the resolution Wednesday, which would have required a two-thirds majority, in an 8-7 vote.

The witness, whom Paul did not name, repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment in response to a subpoena in a private meeting with senators last week.

The business meeting of Paul’s Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee stems from his continued push for answers since Fauci stonewalled two months ago, invoked the Fifth Amendment more than one hundred times in a July 29 hearing.

Paul said Wednesday that he ultimately placed the blame for the records destruction with Fauci and did not want the aide to face criminal penalties. But in a push for more transparency and accountability and in light of the Democrats’ vote, he said he would refer the matter to the Department of Justice. He also said he would seek her records for the last three years to investigate whether her destruction of federal records has continued.

Paul described the fact witness as an aide to Fauci from 2007 to the day he left the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in 2022. He also described her as an aide “in the flow of communications” in the frenzied early days of the pandemic, as Fauci worked with then-Wellcome Trust Director Jeremy Farrar to produce an influential scientific paper dismissing a possible lab origin of the COVID-19 virus.

Records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and congressional subpoena would later reveal that the authors had serious doubts about their own arguments and speculated about a possible lab leak too.

Paul also said the special assistant may have destroyed public records for Fauci for two decades, possibly referring to evidence that has not yet been released to the public.