Senate Democrats blocked a Republican effort to grant immunity to a former assistant to Dr. Anthony Fauci in exchange for her testimony against the former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) director.
In a recent Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Senate committee meeting, the panel considered a resolution directing the Senate legal counsel to request immunity for a witness related to the committee’s probe into the origins of the COVID-19 virus.
Only One Democrat Attended
Sen. Margaret Hassan (D-N.H.), the sole Democrat in attendance, voted against the resolution. The other members effectively voted against the measure by proxy.
All Republican members, including Sens. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Ashley Moody (R-Fla.), attended.
The resolution, requiring a two-thirds vote to pass, failed 8-7 along party lines.
The Assistant's Role In The COVID-19 Probe
According to Chairman Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the witness served as Dr. Fauci’s special assistant from 2007 to 2022, when he departed from the agency.
“Her position placed her in the flow of communications directly relevant to our investigation,” Sen. Paul said.
Sen. Paul claimed that Dr. Fauci’s former assistant obtained knowledge in 2020 about a concern her boss shared with British biologist Jeremy Farrar regarding the virus’s spike proteins.
In the conversation with Farrar, Dr. Fauci reportedly said that if other experts agreed that the concerns should be reported to the authorities, then he would alert his U.S. government colleagues.
Sen. Paul Argues Voting Against The Effort Is An Attempt To Suppress The Truth
Sen. Paul affirmed that the committee asked the assistant to cooperate voluntarily, but that effort failed.
The committee then subpoenaed her, but when she appeared before the panel, she exercised her Fifth Amendment right.
“The Fifth Amendment protection protects her from incriminating herself; immunity gives her that same protection,” Sen. Paul said. “The only thing she cannot do is lie.”
“There’s no principal reason to vote against giving her immunity; the only reason is that you don’t want her to answer, and you do not want to know the truth,” Sen. Paul argued.
Sen. Hassan Responds
“There is a real need for serious bipartisan examination into what went well and what went wrong during our country’s response to the pandemic and for our committee to work together to address threats to our homeland security and improve how our government operates,” Sen. Hassan responded.
“But today, the members of this committee are being asked to rush to utilize an incredibly serious authority,” Sen. Hassan added, revealing that the members were only given a day notice of the meeting.
