Mike Davis is urging Congress and the Justice Department to pursue criminal charges against Dr. Anthony Fauci, arguing that the former top U.S. infectious disease official should face contempt of Congress, federal prosecution and potentially arrest by the Senate sergeant-at-arms over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In an opinion piece, Davis wrote that Fauci's decision to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination before Congress should not end his legal jeopardy. He noted that Fauci refused to testify even after receiving a pardon from former President Joe Biden and argued that lawmakers should respond with a contempt citation.
«Congress should cite him for contempt. The Trump Justice Department should seek an indictment and add an obstruction of Congress charge, forcing Fauci to justify his invocation in light of his pardon,» Davis wrote. He added that Fauci's opening statement at the hearing may have waived his Fifth Amendment protections, giving prosecutors another possible route.
Davis also called on states that worked with Fauci during the pandemic to open their own investigations. «Every state that had any dealings with Fauci should scour its records for potential criminal charges,» he wrote, adding that people who conspired with or aided Fauci were not covered by the pardon and should face federal, state and local scrutiny.
The opinion piece catalogued pandemic policies and outcomes that Davis said amount to gross mismanagement at best and lies at worst. He cited the deaths of more than a million Americans, widespread hospitalizations, school closures that lasted for long stretches, learning loss among children from low-income households, and the economic pain suffered by people who lost jobs or refused what he called an experimental vaccine.
According to Davis, Fauci knew early on that the virus may have emerged from a lab in Wuhan, China, while publicly saying its origin was unknown. He claimed Fauci's agency helped fund gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology that increased the transmissibility and lethality of bat coronaviruses. If the research was not carried out for bona fide peaceful purposes and the pathogen escaped, Davis argued, federal prosecutors should examine whether the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act applies. That statute, 18 U.S.C. § 175, makes it a federal crime to knowingly develop, produce or assist a foreign state in developing a biological agent for use as a weapon, with life imprisonment among the possible penalties.
Davis further alleged that Fauci knew the mask mandate and six-foot social distancing requirement were scientifically baseless, touted a vaccine despite knowing its potential risks, and supported forced vaccination of employees and schoolchildren. He cited a Biden administration vaccine mandate that the Supreme Court struck down. He also referenced a stop Fauci made in a predominantly African American neighborhood of Washington, D.C., in June 2021, during which Fauci promoted COVID shots while, according to Davis, concealing that he had suffered a pulmonary infarction months after receiving his own vaccinations.
The call for accountability comes as congressional Republicans continue to press Fauci for answers about the origins of the pandemic and the decisions that shaped the U.S. response. Davis said Fauci had transformed from «a big man of too many words to a little one of almost none» by asserting his Fifth Amendment rights before Congress. He argued that the pardon should not protect Fauci from questioning about potential crimes Congress could have investigated.
«The deaths of millions demand that no legal theory is left unexplored,» Davis wrote, urging federal, state and local authorities to investigate both Fauci and those who worked with him.
