The man who led America’s response to COVID-19 has finally agreed to speak to a House subcommittee.
The testimony by Dr. Anthony Fauci — former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases — will be his first in the House since Republicans took over the majority in January, according to The Wall Street Journal.
A letter to Fauci on Thursday from Republican Rep. Brad Wenstrup of Ohio — chairman of the House Oversight Committee’s select subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic — noted that it took nine months to agree on terms for Fauci’s testimony.
According to the letter, Fauci will appear Jan. 8-9 behind closed doors for a transcribed interview that will include seven hours of testimony per day.
A public hearing also will be held, but its date has not been scheduled, the letter said.
BREAKING
Dr. Anthony Fauci will appear before the 118th Congress for the FIRST TIME for a two-day transcribed interview on January 8, 2024 and January 9, 2024.
He has also agreed to testify in front of @COVIDSelect at a public hearing next year. pic.twitter.com/8QiIV3Cjph
— Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic (@COVIDSelect) November 30, 2023
In 2020, then-President Donald Trump appointed Fauci to his White House Coronavirus Task Force. Fauci later served as chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden.
“Dr. Fauci was the face of America’s public health response during the COVID-19 pandemic, and his testimony will serve as a crucial component of the Select Subcommittee’s investigations into the origin of COVID-19, coercive mandates, gain-of-function type research, scientific censorship, and more,” Wenstrup said in a news release.
“It is time for Dr. Fauci to confront the facts and address the numerous controversies that have arisen during and after the pandemic. Americans deserve trusted public health leaders who prioritize the well-being of our people over any personal or political goals,” he said.
“Thankfully, retirement from public service does not shield one from Congressional oversight nor accountability to the American people. During Dr. Fauci’s upcoming testimonies, honesty is non-negotiable,” Wenstrup said.
The release said Fauci “was aware of dangerous gain-of-function research occurring in Wuhan, China prior to the emergence of COVID-19, but remained curiously silent to the public.”
Fauci also has been criticized for giving short shrift to theories that the virus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which conducted research he helped fund through his position as director of NIAID.
EcoHealth’s @PeterDaszak testified for 9.5 hours.
We learned:
He briefed Dr. Fauci after visiting Wuhan in 2021
He received a strangely accurate warning about COVID before China told the world
He calls Dr. Morens — alleged records violator — a “mentor”
More to come!
— Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic (@COVIDSelect) November 15, 2023
Fauci retired from that position and his role as Biden’s chief medical adviser at the end of last year.
In September, the select subcommittee said it believes Fauci’s influence may be the reason the CIA has refused to offer a conclusion about whether the virus came from the lab in Wuhan, according to a news release from the committee.
The release said the committee has “recently acquired whistleblower testimony alleging that the CIA potentially skewed its COVID-19 origins review by offering six analysts significant financial incentives to conclude that the result of its investigation was inconclusive.”
BREAKING
New allegation: @CIA secretly escorted Dr. Anthony Fauci into Agency Headquarters to “influence” its COVID-19 origins investigation. pic.twitter.com/MilogK6xll
— Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic (@COVIDSelect) September 26, 2023
It said this development, coupled with the March revelation that Fauci is linked to an influential 2020 report that tried to dismantle the lab leak theory, “lends credence to heightened concerns about the promotion of a false COVID-19 origins narrative by multiple federal government agencies.”
The panel said Fauci made an unannounced trip to CIA headquarters that resulted in the agency waffling on the source of the virus.
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