Sen. Paul says ‘Fauci lied again’; lying to Congress could result in jail time

Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul believes that new documents about research at the Wuhan lab in China prove his accusations that Dr. Anthony Fauci lied to Congress.

(Article by Carmine Sabia republished from ConservativeBrief.com)

Fauci has continuously denied that the National Institutes of Health paid for gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab.

“Surprise surprise – Fauci lied again And I was right about his agency funding novel Coronavirus research at Wuhan. Read this thread and the papers released,” he said attached to a thread from Rutgers professor of chemistry and chemical biology, Richard H. Ebright explaining a story at The Intercept.

Surprise surprise – Fauci lied again

And I was right about his agency funding novel Coronavirus research at Wuhan.

Read this thread and the papers released. https://t.co/zQizKXLdbd

— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) September 7, 2021

NEWLY RELEASED DOCUMENTS provide details of U.S.-funded research on several types of coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. The Intercept has obtained more than 900 pages of documents detailing the work of EcoHealth Alliance, a U.S.-based health organization that used federal money to fund bat coronavirus research at the Chinese laboratory. The trove of documents includes two previously unpublished grant proposals that were funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as well as project updates relating to EcoHealth Alliance’s research, which has been scrutinized amid increased interest in the origins of the pandemic.

The documents were released in connection with ongoing Freedom of Information Act litigation by The Intercept against the National Institutes of Health. The Intercept is making the full documents available to the public.

“This is a road map to the high-risk research that could have led to the current pandemic,” Gary Ruskin, who serves as the executive director of the U.S. Right To Know group that has been investigating to origins of the pandemic, said.

But where it gets interesting is where the story showed that the United States Government gave $3.1 million to EcoHealth Alliance, an American company, to support bat coronavirus research at the Wuhan lab.

Around $600,000 of that was used by WIV to find and alter bat coronaviruses that could infect humans.

It also showed research was done on genetically altered mice with human cell receptors was conducted at the Wuhan University Center for Animal Experiment, not at the WIV as  was previously believed.

“The documents make it clear that assertions by the NIH Director, Francis Collins, and the NIAID Director, Anthony Fauci, that the NIH did not support gain-of-function research or potential pandemic pathogen enhancement at WIV are untruthful,” professor Ebright said.

The documents make it clear that assertions by the NIH Director, Francis Collins, and the NIAID Director, Anthony Fauci, that the NIH did not support gain-of-function research or potential pandemic pathogen enhancement at WIV are untruthful.

— Richard H. Ebright (@R_H_Ebright) September 7, 2021

If it is true that Fauci lied to Congress he could be in a serious jam, as 18 US Code 1621 explains the penalty for perjury.

That code explains that if a person “is guilty of perjury and shall, except as otherwise expressly provided by law, be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both. This section is applicable whether the statement or subscription is made within or without the United States.”

And 18 US Code 1001 explains that anyone who “makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation” could “be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 5 years.”

Paul and Fauci, both doctors, have had a contentious and combative relationship, as was shown during Dr. Fauci’s most recent hearing before Congress where Paul accused him of lying.

It happened in July when Fauci was before the Senate and Paul accused him of “lying” about gain of function research at the Wuhan, China lab being financed by the United States, Fox News reported.

Fauci and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky are also likely to face questions on whether the U.S. should bring back health measures like mask mandates as the delta COVID variant spreads around the country. 

In his questioning of Fauci, Paul stepped close to the line of accusing Fauci of lying to Congress in previous testimony in which he said that the NIAID had never funded gain-of-function research in China. Citing a paper on research about bat coronaviruses, Paul said that U.S. money had essentially gone to the hazardous and controversial research – an assertion Fauci strongly objected to. 

Paul asked Fauci if he wanted to retract his previous statement before Congress that the “NIH never funded gain of function research in Wuhan,” citing that lying to Congress is a crime

“I have never lied before the Congress, and I do not retract that statement,” Fauci said, noting that the research Paul talked about was “judged by qualified staff up and down the chain as not being gain of function.”

“When you take an animal virus, and you increase its transmissibility to humans—you’re saying that’s not gain-of-function research?” Paul saidTop of Form

“Senator Paul, you do not know what you are talking about, and I want to say that officially,” Fauci said.

“It says that ‘scientific research that increases the transmissibility among animals is gain-of-function,’” he said. The Wuhan researchers “took animal viruses…then increased their transmissibility to humans. How you can say that is not gain-of-function—it’s a dance, and you’re dancing around this, because you’re trying to obscure responsibility for four million people around the world dying from a pandemic.”

“How can you say that’s not gain-of-function? It’s a dance and you’re dancing around this because you’re trying to obscure responsibility for 4 million people dying around the world from a pandemic,” the senator hit back, cutting Fauci off.

Fauci was livid with the senator.

“If the point that you are making is that the grant that was funded as a subaward … created SARS-COV-2, that’s where you are getting,” he said as Paul cut him off again.

“We don’t know … but all the evidence is pointing that it came from the lab and there will be responsible for those that funded the lab, including yourself,” the senator said, noting that while “nobody is saying” what was created in the Wuhan lab caused the pandemic the lab was still doing gain of function research that was, in part, paid for by the NIH.

“I totally resent the lie you are now propagating, senator,” the epidemiologist said, noting that it is molecularly impossible the research that the NIH funded was responsible for the creation of SARS-CoV-2.

“You are implying that what we did was responsible for the deaths of individual[s], I totally resent that and if anybody is lying here, senator, it is you,” he said.

Read more at: ConservativeBrief.com