Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., blocked a plea deal offer from the Senate Committee on Homeland Security to Dr. Anthony Fauci’s assistant for her testimony about destroying records at her boss’s request in exchange for immunity from possible criminal charges from the Department of Justice.
Before the vote, Committee Chairman Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told the Daily Signal that the plea offer provides an opportunity for “transparency” and to give the American people “the truth,” given that the unnamed former assistant would provide testimony to the committee regarding her involvement in destroying public records in order to protect former top officials of the National Institutes of Health.
“I think everybody should be for transparency, whether a Republican or a Democrat. We’d like his assistant to testify about who gave her the orders to destroy records, how many records were destroyed, and over what period of time she destroyed records for Anthony Fauci,” Paul told the Daily Signal. “And I think that’s the least anybody could expect.”
“If she’s taking orders from above, it’s the person who gave the orders that, you know, needs to be either reprimanded or chastised, or, you know, found guilty by history, and we’re trying to get to the truth, and that’s why we’re offering this assistant immunity,” Paul continued.
During the committee’s business meeting, however, Hassan, the only Democrat present, said she opposed the effort to offer the assistant the deal because she “does not have enough information” on the matter, despite having received all of the information made available to the committee’s Republicans, Paul confirmed.
Paul added that he had each Democrat on the committee sign a document stating that they had received information about the offer, the assistant, and the committee’s doubts about the COVID-19 pandemic and former NIH Director Fauci, hinting that the Democrats’ obstruction could have been purely political.
Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, echoed the chairman’s claim and spoke out against what Republicans described as the Democrats’ obstruction of the effort to hear the assistant’s testimony and avoid any criminal charges against her.
“Eight of us are saying let’s talk, and Democrats are sitting here like middle schoolers saying no, we don’t,” Moreno said, adding that Democrats are “acting like petulant middle school children.”
The resolution to offer the assistant the deal needed two-thirds of the vote to pass. The vote ultimately failed after all seven committee Democrats voted against it, with the other six Democrats on the committee voting no by proxy.
After the hearing, Paul stated that his effort to offer the assistant immunity from possible criminal prosecution in exchange for testimony is not over, adding that he “will personally be sending a letter to the Department of Justice asking them to pursue this.”
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[ H/T The Daily Signal ]
