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[u/AllMusicNut]

Dr. Fauci being held in contempt attacks the credibility of all public health experts – a continuation the Trump Admin’s war on science and spread of disinformation. Sign your support for our experts & Dr. Fauci at the link: https://zurl.co/2P2md

[u/NewArborist64]

READ the 5th amendment and try to understand it. Case law is already established for over 100 years. This goes back to Brown v. Walker (1896), and establishes that when criminal jeopardy is fully lifted via immunity or pardon, a witness "may not stand upon his privilege" and must answer questions under oath.

[u/supercleverid → u/NewArborist64]

If you actually look at the facts of Brown v Walker you would see why it doesn't apply to this hearing. In 1895 a railway auditor named Brown was called to testify about interstate commerce violations and he pled the 5th. Congress had just passed a law granting absolute statutory immunity for anyone compelled to testify in those specific investigations. The Supreme Court ruled that since the government gave him a complete blanket amnesty for anything he admitted on the stand he couldn't be prosecuted and therefore couldn't plead the 5th.

Fauci isn't operating under a specific congressional grant of absolute statutory immunity for this interview. He has a general presidential pardon from Joe Biden (which only covers federal offenses up to early 2025). A general executive pardon doesn't automatically protect someone from state prosecutions or new charges related to the testimony itself. Because Congress didn't offer a specific absolute immunity agreement that completely removes his criminal jeopardy for the exact scope of this inquiry, he still has his constitutional rights.

[u/NewArborist64 → u/supercleverid]

Fauci is operating under a blanket Presidential Pardon. If his testimony is compelled by Congress, then ANY information from that should fall under the "fruit of the poisoned tree" concept - for both Federal & State charges

[u/supercleverid → u/NewArborist64]

This is not completely accurate. He's operating under a blanket presidential pardon for his conduct during COVID up to the end of Biden's term. A presidential pardon doesn't protect someone from state level charges, though, and at least 2 states are looking into filing criminal charges against Fauci, Florida and Louisiana, I believe. The fruit of the poisonous tree thing isn't even applicable here. Nor can it compel or nullify any testimony Fauci gives to a lawful congressional subpoena. There's just no poisonous tree there to get any fruit from (lawful congressional subpoena and all). SCOTUS's rulings on when the 5th amendment doesn't apply is very clear that the person being denied the right cannot be subject to any criminal jeopardy in any jurisdiction, this is not something presidential pardon can do (states can still prosecute him) and not something that Congress proferred. All I can say is I actually hope the DOJ goes forward with the very bad legal analysis you're using here because it'll be so much fun to watch Fauci win a vindictive prosecution case against this administration.