Rand Paul to refer Fauci’s assistant to DOJ over destruction of records

Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Rand Paul (R-KY) will be asking the Justice Department to open an investigation into Dr. Anthony Fauci’s executive assistant for the alleged destruction of records related to the origins of COVID-19.Paul announced Wednesday that he and fellow Republicans would be pursuing a DOJ referral for Fauci’s assistant after failing to secure enough votes from Democrats on the panel to request a court order granting her immunity to share information about Fauci’s alleged illegal activity.Sources familiar with the investigation confirmed that committee Republicans are interested in granting immunity to Patricia Conrad, Fauci’s former executive assistant, for her to provide information regarding Fauci’s alleged 20-year history of destroying records as director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Conrad invoked her Fifth Amendment right to remain silent during a closed-door deposition on Friday, prompting Paul to move for the committee to request a federal court order granting Conrad immunity to testify. Paul needed a two-thirds majority vote to gain a court order granting immunity for Fauci’s assistant to testify before the committee, which would have required two Democrats to join Republicans.“All we needed was two Democrats who wanted to hear her story, but not a single one of them is interested in the investigation or the truth about destruction of federal records,” Paul said of the party-line vote. “This is disappointing.”He added that he “will personally be sending a letter to the Department of Justice asking them to pursue this” and that “this investigation is still beginning.”Conrad, whom Fauci often referred to as his “right-hand woman,” was copied on thousands of pages of emails made public by the Senate homeland security committee this summer before Fauci appeared before Congress under subpoena.The email dumps document how high-ranking NIAID officials and their staff attempted to obstruct government records requests at the height of the pandemic and downplayed concerns that COVID-19 originated in a research facility in Wuhan, China, as opposed to from an animal host.During the hearing on July 29, Fauci invoked his right to remain silent more than 100 times, despite having a pardon from former President Joe Biden covering any illegal activity from 2014 to 2024.Paul said during the immunity vote Wednesday that the questions the committee would like to ask Conrad revolve mostly around the destruction of government records at the NIAID, including how much information was destroyed, over what period of time, and who ordered the record destruction.Paul said Conrad’s decision to plead the Fifth “makes it worse,” including opening up an investigation into her email records from within the statute of limitations for potential prosecution.“It makes it that there will be a referral from us to the Department of Justice, but there also will have to be a further examination of her recent records to see if her pattern of destruction of records has gone on,” Paul said.Paul also said the “no” vote from Democrats “actually encourages the DOJ to seek to compel her testimony with an indictment.”Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH), the only Democrat present at the meeting, said Paul requested the vote too hastily, adding that Democrats were only informed yesterday afternoon of the intention to hold the meeting.“Compelling someone to testify after they have invoked their Fifth Amendment right is something none of us should take lightly,” Hassan said. “Before we take an extraordinary step like this, we should first more seriously pursue a good-faith bipartisan approach to obtain this information and pursue the work of this committee.”Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), the ranking Democrat on the homeland security committee, has argued previously that Paul’s investigation has been partisan, including accusing Paul of withholding documents and information from the minority party.DHS HASN’T SENT OVER INFORMATION ABOUT MINNEAPOLIS ICE KILLINGS REQUESTED BY CONGRESS: RAND PAULSen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) asked Hassan if it would be possible to move forward in the near future to secure a bipartisan vote to give Conrad immunity.“I’m happy to give her immunity,” Johnson said to Hassan. “I don’t want to see Anthony Fauci’s assistant go to jail. I want the truth, and hopefully, folks on your side of the aisle will help us get the truth without again harming that particular witness.”