Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill announced Saturday that her office will investigate Dr. Anthony Fauci, joining Florida and Alabama in examining the former government scientist’s conduct following a contentious Senate hearing last week.
Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 111 times during Wednesday’s Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing, declining to answer lawmakers’ questions about his role in the COVID-19 pandemic response.
“Fauci lied,” Murrill wrote on X. “Louisiana and Missouri deposed Dr. Fauci. At the time, he claimed to not recall many key details of his own actions and now we are discovering contemporaneous records he kept.”
“Louisiana will join Alabama & Florida in investigating Fauci and whether he committed any other offenses that could be pursued in our State courts,” she added.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, who served as the state’s attorney general before Murrill, also weighed in on X. “As someone who was Attorney General alongside Eric Schmitt, and deposed Dr. Fauci, I am happy to have Louisiana join Alabama and Florida!” he wrote.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced his own investigation last week.
Fauci received a preemptive pardon from former President Biden before leaving office, shielding him from federal prosecution. That pardon does not extend to state charges.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville,l (R-AL) who is running for Alabama governor, said the pardon has no bearing on his home state’s ability to act. “Anthony Fauci is responsible for the deaths of millions of Americans and tens of thousands of Alabamians,” Tuberville said. “The ‘pardon’ signed by Joe Biden’s autopen doesn’t apply to state-level crimes.”
“When I’m governor of Alabama, I will look into ways we can hold Fauci accountable for all of the Alabamians who died under his watch,” Tuberville added.
Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul (R-KY), who led Wednesday’s hearing, said his committee would begin the process of holding Fauci in contempt of Congress.
The renewed scrutiny follows Sen. Paul’s release of more than a thousand pages of Fauci’s personal diary entries and work records in the days before the hearing. Fauci has called the release an attempt at “embarrassing and intimidating” him.
Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) separately reintroduced his STOP the SWAMP Act this week, which would authorize lawmakers to refer federal witnesses who withhold information from Congress to the Justice Department.
“If you can hide from Congress, you shouldn’t be able to work for the federal government,” McCormick said in a statement. “Congress has a constitutional duty to conduct oversight, and federal employees have a duty to tell the truth. Full stop.”
