Anthony Fauci repeated the following phrase 111 times last Wednesday.
“On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.”
Those twenty-one words were all the former NAID Director and face of the COVID-19 public health response had to say, and he repeated them for every question he faced. When asked whether there was a carpet on the floor in front of him (or what color it was), he pleaded the Fifth. When asked what color tie he was wearing (or what day of the week it was), he pleaded the Fifth. And when asked how he could plead the Fifth despite his presidential pardon, he pleaded the Fifth.
If Fauci could have answered one question last week, it was that one. If Joe Biden’s pardon shields Fauci from criminal liability, his ability to incriminate himself disappears. Without that, the Fifth Amendment has no text to provide him with any protection.
The Fifth Amendment provides that no person “shall be …
