Louisiana has opened a state investigation into Dr. Anthony Fauci, making it the third state to begin examining his conduct after a dramatic Senate appearance last week.

Attorney General Liz Murrill announced Saturday that Louisiana will join Alabama and Florida in investigating Fauci and whether he committed crimes within their jurisdictions.

The move came three days after Fauci repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right during sworn testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Fox News reports that Murrill’s office is reviewing whether Fauci violated Louisiana law, while the attorneys general of Alabama and Florida have launched their own state-level inquiries.

Murrill pointed to a deposition Louisiana and Missouri took from Fauci in earlier litigation. She said Fauci claimed at the time that he could not recall key details about his own actions, while newly uncovered contemporaneous diary entries now appear to preserve his thinking from that same period.

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The report says Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier opened an investigation in July, while Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall disclosed his state’s inquiry after Fauci’s Senate testimony. Murrill’s announcement gives the state-level review a third jurisdiction and another set of investigative tools.

Investigators will still have to identify a specific state offense and evidence that supports it. Murrill’s point is that the gap between Fauci’s earlier memory claims and his contemporaneous records warrants a closer look.

The Associated Press reported that Fauci declined to answer questions more than 100 times at Wednesday’s hearing. His attorney said the answers could expose him to prosecution despite former President Joe Biden’s sweeping federal pardon.

The Fifth Amendment protects every American from being compelled to incriminate himself, and invoking it is not an admission of guilt. It also does not require state investigators to stop following evidence that may fall under state law.

That distinction could be decisive. A presidential pardon reaches federal offenses, not violations of state law.

Louisiana, Alabama and Florida would still need jurisdiction, admissible evidence and a viable statute before any charge could be brought. Biden’s pardon does not settle those state questions for them.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee confirms that Fauci appeared under subpoena on July 29. Chairman Rand Paul has said the committee was seeking answers about the origins of COVID-19, gain-of-function research and Fauci’s public statements during the pandemic.

The official record lists Fauci as the hearing’s sole witness and preserves the committee’s video of his sworn appearance. That means the public can judge the exchange itself, including the questions asked, the privilege claims made and the areas where senators say the newly obtained records conflict with the account they previously received.

Millions of Americans lived under rules shaped by Fauci’s recommendations. Businesses closed, children lost classroom time, churches faced restrictions and families were separated from loved ones.

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The officials who exercised that much power owe the public a complete account of how their decisions were made.

Paul is now pursuing another route inside Congress.

Whether that effort advances will depend on the committee, the legal scope of Fauci’s privilege claims and the Justice Department. The state investigations, however, are already broadening the accountability fight beyond Washington.

For years, Americans were told to trust the experts and stop asking uncomfortable questions. Now three state attorneys general are asking their own questions, with investigative authority behind them.

Fauci is entitled to every constitutional protection. The American people are entitled to the truth.

Those principles are not in conflict, and Louisiana is right to determine whether its laws were broken.

 

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