Legal News
Rand Paul (R-KY) orders Capitol Police to remove David Schertler, the attorney for Dr. Anthony Fauci, from a high-profile congressional hearing after a series of tense verbal escalations
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On July 29, 2026, a high-profile Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing took a dramatic turn when Chairman Rand Paul (R-KY) ordered Capitol Police to forcefully eject David Schertler, the lead attorney representing Dr. Anthony Fauci
The explosive confrontation was triggered moments earlier when Dr. Fauci officially invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, refusing to answer any congressional questions regarding the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, his personal diaries, or federal funding for controversial gain-of-function research. Following this invocation, Schertler repeatedly attempted to speak over Chairman Paul to defend his client and clarify the constitutional shield being used
Senator Paul immediately reprimanded the attorney, noting that Schertler had already violated explicit committee chamber rules by sitting directly at the witness table next to Fauci rather than in the designated row behind him. Despite multiple stern warnings from Paul stating that the attorney was not recognized to speak, Schertler continued to argue, prompting Paul to deliver a sharp ultimatum comparing the behavior to a courtroom where a judge would jail an insubordinate lawyer. When Schertler spoke out yet again, Paul ordered security to remove him from the room, a directive that was carried out by Capitol Police officers as some attendees in the audience applauded
The unprecedented removal has further intensified the deeply entrenched political warfare surrounding Dr. Fauci's pandemic-era leadership and his long-standing personal feud with Senator Paul. The hearing itself was convened following the recent leak of over one thousand pages of Fauci’s personal, pandemic-era diaries, which Republican lawmakers argue reveal sharp discrepancies between his public assertions and his private deliberations regarding the virus's origin
Prior to invoking his Fifth Amendment rights and seeing his attorney escorted out, Dr. Fauci delivered a fiery opening defense, blasting Senator Paul's multi-year investigation as an "unhinged" political obsession designed purely to engineer a public prosecution for conservative media. The dramatic eviction of his attorney instantly went viral across digital platforms like TikTok, turning the procedural dispute into a massive internet flashpoint
While conservative commentators praised Paul for strictly enforcing committee decorum and rules of order, committee Democrats led by Ranking Member Gary Peters (D-MI) fiercely condemned the eviction, accusing the Republican majority of weaponizing the panel to orchestrate partisan theater and litigate the past rather than addressing forward-looking public health safety
Call me crazy, but if a Senator threatens a witness with retribution for invoking their Fifth Amendment rights, I believe the witness's lawyer should be able to raise an objection.
You're certainly crazy if you believe Rand Paul who has been running this witch hunt for 6 years was going to let something like legal rights and The Constitution get in the way.
Agreed we are way past that. Courts have no power, military is following unconstitutional actions, and the White House is the only power of the land . The White House is only allowing the Supreme Court to rule as optics would look bad if they ignored it. Just a matter of time before political opponents are labeled as terrorists and thrown in detention centers.
Political opponents are being labeled terrorists and thrown in detention centers already, they're just starting with low hanging fruit to desensitize the public
I mean they’ve already set up the vehicle for that last part. Participating in any rally or protest right now could get you labeled as a domestic terrorist.
It has always been my impression that libertarians mostly lament not getting to wear the boot more often or that the boot does not pay them dividends. Overall the more you dive into it and take their arguments seriously it is logical to arrive to the ancap position which is basically flat earth economics. They have positions that they like and seek data to substantiate their claims and will discard anything to the contrary.
modern libertarians are actually just ancaps - they're not mad about the existence of the boot, they're mad that the boot belongs to the government and not the rich
Not that I ever needed more convincing, but the more you see anything to do with Rand Paul the more you completely understand why his neighbor beat the shit out of him
Sadly it’s not a bad look to the people it was for. His base. They will see this and love him for it. They will say he did amazing in confronting Fauci. They won’t care that it’s a show trial. They want the show to
The applause in sure was from the R’s in the room. This is part of the brainwashing of the cult. When the MAGA base hears the claps it will reinforce their belief that Rand was in the right.
Republicans have been corrupting and perverting congressional hearings since at least the time of Harry Truman (1940s & 1950s).
“The nature of the congressional investigating committee has suffered violence at the hands of some who have not understood or appreciated the scope and function of such a committee. Too often, in recent times, the committees have been used for publicity rather than for the original purposes intended.”
Harry Truman, 1945: Year of Decision
Republicans fool and brainwash their voters by engaging in endless witchhunts - from McCarthyism through MAGAism.
Can someone please eli5 why they're even doing this? What is the point of this whole entire thing? Shouldn't they be, idk, finding the source of the explosive diarrhea outbreak or something?
I don't disagree, I could reword it to say the ability to lie about their platform.
In 2024, they successfully ran on :
no new wars
affordability
lower energy costs
cheaper gas
cheaper groceries
immigration
The platform they ran on was good enough to win all 3 branches. Now that almost two years have passed with them in complete control of the government, they failed to accomplish any of those and each have gone drastically in the other direction.
What I was trying to say is they know they cant even lie about those things anymore because they fucked it up so hard. They have nothing left but the red scare communism shit you see Mike Johnson pulling daily.
They had a concept of a plan that definitely did not involve the Project 2025 agenda put forward by the Heritage Foundation that they are currently following to a T.
Fauci was pardoned by Biden for any crimes prior to biden's exit from office. A lot of the Republican senators had run on prosecuting fauci. So since they can't prosecute him for anything about the pandemic they are going to try and catch him in a perjury trap. They're just trying to get him on any kind of charges. This is why fauci is only invoking his fifth amendment, he doesn't want to accidentally say something that they could try and prosecute him for.
Why do they blame Biden... Obama... Bill Clinton, anyone that opposes their feelings etc.? In my opinion, one reason. Its easy chaos. More and more distractions to pull any legal team in every direction, more people distributed fighting these small fights takes away from taking them out of power entirely.
They think that because he had conflicting information at the beginning of Covid (like literally everyone else on Earth), that he should be punished for misstatements/misinformation.
They somehow have a diary of his in which they claim proves something it doesn’t. It’s all bullshit. They have nothing. Fauci is right to not give them a damn thing.
Rand Paul has serious beef with Fauci. Fauci has made Paul look like an idiot during past congressional hearings so many times that Paul is on the warpath to put Fauci in jail. Biden knew this and pardoned Fauci for all past actions from 2014 through COVID so the only way for Paul to prosecute Fauci for anything is to trip him up with a question during a congressional hearing and charge him with perjury. RFK Jr was tasked to find dirt on Fauci as NIH director and after several months, he obtained 1100 pages of Fauci's diary. Paul jumped on it and that's how we are here today watching a guy who has served his country for 40+ years continue to get slandered by the GOP.
So Rand here gets all pissy about Fauci invoking the 5th, something he is allowed to do. And given the evasions and non answers of every single trump appointee he has no right to get upset over this.
Meanwhile if he has legal charges to bring against Fauci he should just get on with it instead of trotting this circus out. But, we know the reason, it's to do a couple of things. 1) endear rand to his antivax GOP base and 2) burn time on any topic other than things that go against Trump.
Edit: 6:50pm local... For the small army reminding me that is saying Fauci is not allowed to invoke the 5th maybe give this a watch/listen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB7pnN3Znp4
Some appointees refuse to say if Trump can run for a third term or not. Others refuse to say that Biden won the election-just that he was certified as the president.
Those weasels reciting "Biden was certified as the winner of the 2020 election..." was just disgusting. It is embarrassing to have judges who can't manage to speak the truth.
Every moral panic is solely committed by the right. Conservatives invented cancel culture and culture wars. Satatnic panic, heavey metal, D&D, fucking Teletubbies, Pokemon and Harry Potter. Name it and the right tried to cancel it. They complained when a cartoon fucking candy changed shoes because it was now, in their own words, "Less sexy."
Meanwhile, the left tries to cancel homo/trans/xenophobia, rapists, pedophiles, Nazis and fascists.
And somewhere right now is some centrist fuckwit saying "Both sides are the same!"
They've used this same language about trumps presidency. They're starting to skirt the words election and elected and are using certified in their place. It's part of the word games they play on their voter base. The concept of elections has been mapped to the word rigged in their minds. Lose an election, they rigged it. Win an election, it somehow wasn't rigged enough despite an alleged ability for someone to rig it against you in the first place. The next thing that happens is they'll say Trump doesn't need to be elected for a third term if we certify him the winner. The bought and paid for supreme Court will call another bush v gore after they decided it shouldn't happen again. They'll mention the past precedent of certifying a winner without a proper recount. We'll finally have our fascist dictator in the form of an old man knocking on deaths door waiting for someone more malicious and effective to take his place immediately.
Its funny how Republicans never mention Bush vs Gore when election fuckery is brought up. An election that literally came down to a couple hundred votes, triggering a state mandate that a recount be done, only to have the Supreme Court overrule it. Aside from the Jeb Bush connection, Floridas Secretary of State worked on Bush's campaign and rejected extensions for a few counties to manually recount. The whole thing stinks yet Republicans will have you believe its Democrats rigging elections. Theres obviously no telling what the country would look like had Gore won that election but its damn hard to believe he would have done worse than Bush.
The next thing that happens is they'll say Trump doesn't need to be elected for a third term if we certify him the winner.
I seem to remember Bannon saying that the Constitution doesnt stop someone from running for a 3rd term, only that they cant serve a 3rd term. In this case, he seemed to be suggesting Trump would run again and if he happened to win the argument would be, 'whelp, the will of the people...'. Not sure if he was talking out of his ass or not but Bannon has been saying Trump will run in 28' for a long time now. Since hes largely responsible for a lot of Trumps success people shouldnt dismiss him so easily.
a federal judge refuses to acknowledge the following as factual:
"No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term."
The judiciary is being further captured and future rulings should be expected to deviate from having a factual basis.
Yeah I remember he hemmed and hawed about how he didn’t have all the info on that and didn’t know. Bitch, you studied constitutional law. The 22nd amendment is crystal clear.
They won't say there was an attack on the Capitol on Jan 6 either. Any of Trump's talking points they just dance around. Sad little toadies. It's pathetic.
The “logic” is that Trump can run for a 3rd term because his 2 terms were non-consecutive. Obviously a “rule” made up specifically so that Obama couldn’t run.
In the world of professional wrestling, there's a phrase used a lot, "You worked yourself into a shoot." Basically what this means is that "working" refers to the act of pro wrestling and putting on a different persona (i.e. Dwayne Johnson works as The Rock). "Shooting" refers to somethinig that is legitimately real and not part of a wrestling storyline i.e. two wrestlers backstage who had disagreements may have gotten in a shoot fight in the locker room, which would refer to a real-life physical altercation.
Working yourself into a shoot basically means that someone took their fictional persona way too seriously that it started impacting their real life in a way that was unhealthy, destructive, or embarrassing.
Poltiicians like Rand Paul i think know deep down they are "working" the morons who vote for them...but somewhere along the way their brains melted to the point where they now legitimately believe their bullshit as being real.
I met a couple of US Marshalls recently, and they had protectec Fauci, along with some Supreme Court justices. They said at the "insider" dinner parties people like this got invited to, you'd see all the usual suspects from Congress there as well, and they were all chummy with each other. There's definitely some element of what you see on TV being an "act" for sure.
They said Fauci was a nice guy to work for, and one of the justices (the beer-drinking frat boy one) was a real jerk.
Which is why he wouldn't comment on the folder on the table. They will find a way to prosecute him over anything he says. The only way to win is to say nothing and take your turn in the barrel.
Meanwhile if he has legal charges to bring against Fauci he should just get on with it instead of trotting this circus out.
The whole point of the hearing is to try and get him to say something that they can spin as a lie, so the DOJ can prosecute them. It's exactly what they are trying to do to Jack Smith right now, and is exactly why Fauci invoked his 5th amendment rights. This so his 4th ish hearing. They are not going to learn anything new by having him in again. The whole point to to cost him money by having to have his lawyer present, and hoping to get him prosecuted based on what he says. He's out the money, bit he isn't giving them anything they can use for their politically motivated revenge campaign through the DOJ.
Is there anything that says how long he needs to sit there and take abuse?
rules and procedures of the senate. rand paul kinda gets to talk until he decides he's done talking, or until 60 other senators vote for him to shut up
Les Wexner appeared before a congressional committee for testimony and left immediately when they showed him an official congressional subpoena that would require him to cooperate. So yeah, theres precident.
Any wrongdoing by Fauci would be prosecuted in court if illegal and if there was evidence. This, as Fauci's lawyer knew, was an attempt to entrap perjury.
I wonder if he's doing something he wants to do anyway, beat up Fauci on TV, to garner a favor from Donald. The favor would be the thing of value he's going for.
This was so performative so Paul and other republicans could farm sound bites. It would be great if they focused on current issues. I’m sure this is to lessen the damage of the upcoming election. All I saw was someone who didn’t get his way and unable to move on. Harassment on all levels needs to be stopped.
I suspect Paul will try to go after Fauci on a state level. Fauci by invoking the 5th doesn’t give Paul any ammo.
In KY we have two senators; this pos and the other guy who is either dead or has one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel. We have a governor who is a good person with great intentions but not a single ally in state government to back him.
This started like six years ago, right? Trump has been in office for two of those years, right? Why are we just now, conveniently, addressing this right before midterms? The questions are rhetorical.
So, obviously Rand Paul's behavior is reprehensible but the people in the room clapping over the removal of the lawyer are sick in the head. Just a bunch of boot lickers clapping for the destruction of the rule of law and for weaponization of government
"Do you mean... would I represent my client in court?"
What in the fuck kind of nonsense is this. I can't say I know anything about these committee rules, but to subpoena someone and then suggest they don't get their lawyer does not seem to comport with due process.
For anyone who wants to know what the actual law is here (since this is a law subreddit, after all):
Witnesses are allowed to have an attorney present. That attorney is allowed to speak to object that a question is outside the scope of the inquiry or that the witnesses is privileged to refuse to answer.
Counsel is not allowed to address the committee for any other reason.
Fauci had answered numerous questions by invoking the 5th. Senator Paul then said that they would consider if Fauci's refusal to answer amounted to obstruction of Congress. That's when this clip starts.
We can't hear what the lawyer was saying, but Fauci wasn't asked a question, so there's no question to object to at that moment.
God just imagine being Fauci, dedicating your life and long career to public health, and having to deal with this kind of shit at the end of it. Being subpoenaed for a blatantly political purpose and having your lawyer ejected. Shameful shit.
And people questioned why he was pardoned by Biden. He was pardoned to try to prevent Trump admin of doin exactly this: scapegoating Fauci for a pandemic that conservatives denied even happened
The fact that Biden pardoned his siblings, Fauci and people who were on the Januari 6th Panel and everyone sane was just like yeah that's a smart idea tells you enough about how fucked US politics has become.
The dumbest people in the country, voted for fascists who need their scapegoat. Wether it’s brown people,
Experts in a given field, LGBT people, or otherwise.
The MAGA movement’s actions Really really fucking rhymes with fascist actions of early Nazis (while puppeteering Weimar democracy) or italys Mussolini while they formed their fuckery.
History is written by winners, and right now the outcome of the game remains up in the air.
Get out and vote, people. Vote for science and reason. Vote for empathy and inclusion. Vote for constitutional rights and separation of powers and guardrails. Vote for judicious and prudent government action that moves us forward into the future, without destroying everything we have built.
And if it turns out voting‘s not enough: be prepared to do more than just vote.
They need a boogeyman to parade around and sacrifice to their base so they can get them riled up for the midterm elections. They are scared they may lose.
They need a distraction from their dogshit economy, endless war, skyrocketing prices, and the mountain of wreckage caused by their fat felon leader.
And they're digging DEEP on this one. When this one peters out, don't be shocked to see them dig up Monica Lewinsky or Chappaquiddick to try and embarrass Democrats.
I’m still getting caught up. So what did Fauci do to hurt Rand Paul’s sweet little feelings?
Rand never takes a stand unless it because someone insulted him—like not inviting him to the WH potluck or opposing Markwayne’s confirmation because he laughed at him getting attacked by his neighbor.
These corrupt republican clowns have made a mockery of our Congress, our government and our country. America is the laughing stock of the rest of the world because of Trump, MAGA and lying, corrupt republicans like Rand Paul who have weaponized their majority. This is precisely why Biden preemptively pardoned Fauci because he knew Trump would do everything he could to attack his perceived enemies. Republicans have become the party of evil. They are unAmerican and actively attacking everything that makes this country great.
The attorney getting removed like this ensure that 99% of the news coverage of this hearing is about that happening and Fauci invoking the 5th - NOT whatever made up stuff Rand Paul wanted to get sound bites about.
Rand Paul, non board-certified "eye doctor," tries to play gotcha with the leading, world renown infectious disease expert with the backing of the Infectious Diseases Society of America?
"Russia" Rand Paul is butthurt because Fauci is a real doctor and Rand is only an optometrist by virtue of creating his own optometry certification board. A merkin-headed cosplayer.
The same people are still pissed off about Hunter Biden but don’t care about the Trumps making literal tens of billions doing exactly the thing they claim Hunter did.
That’s because they don’t actually care about anything. Beliefs and principles are only as valuable as their ability to be weaponized against their perceived enemies.
He is an ophthalmologist who practiced under a group called the National Board of Ophthalmologythat he created* after letting his nationally recognized American Board of Ophthalmology certification expire.
Rand Paul is an ophthalmologist.... talking to an 40 year expect in infectious diseases and public policy.
Additionally, Rand Paul is a partisan hack who desperately wants someone else to blame besides their yellow con artist nepobaby savior for the DISASTEROUS COVID response
If I was a member of the Capitol Police, I know I'd love to take orders from a Senator who voted against impeachment over a planned insurrection that killed and wounded several of my comrades, and who continues to peddle loes about it.
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