You know that presidential pardon Joe Biden's autopen stamped out for Anthony Fauci? Turns out it has a pretty significant limitation, kind of like a coupon that only works at one store. As USA Journal reported, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier just announced his office is opening an investigation into the good doctor, and Biden's fancy federal pardon has exactly zero jurisdiction over state law. Zilch. Nada. Constitutional Law 101.
What prompted this exciting new chapter in the Fauci saga? Well, Dr. Fauci sat down before the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday and proceeded to invoke the Fifth Amendment a whopping 111 times. One hundred and eleven! That's roughly once every thirty seconds if you're keeping score at home. At one point he apparently wouldn't even confirm whether a folder was sitting on the table right in front of him. That's not pleading the Fifth, that's playing peek-a-boo with senators.
"Fauci's lack of candor to Congress is unbelievable," Uthmeier posted on Wednesday, presumably after picking his jaw up off the floor. "My office is launching an investigation into Dr. Fauci. It's past time we get the truth of what happened during COVID."
Now here's the beautiful irony of this whole situation. You'd think a guy holding a shiny federal pardon would feel comfortable chatting freely with lawmakers. But Fauci clearly understands something important: that pardon only covers federal offenses. It doesn't shield you from state charges. It doesn't protect you from perjury committed after the pardon was issued. And it absolutely cannot stop a motivated Florida attorney general from digging into whether any state laws were broken.
Senator Rand Paul, who has been on Fauci's case like white on rice for years, released Fauci's private journal to the public. And boy, what a read. The diary reportedly contains entries about being a "rockstar" and complaints about colleagues being "jealous" because they wouldn't let him do more television appearances. Nothing says humble public servant quite like writing "rockstar" in your personal diary.
But the potentially serious part? According to the journal, Fauci privately acknowledged that COVID likely originated from the Wuhan lab while simultaneously pushing natural origin theories in public. Those natural origin talking points conveniently kept federal research funding out of the spotlight. His private thoughts and public statements were apparently running in completely opposite directions, like two trains headed for a spectacular collision.
Critics will undoubtedly call this investigation a partisan fishing expedition against a pardoned man. But that argument has a fundamental problem: presidential pardons are constitutionally limited to federal offenses. A president possesses absolutely no authority over state criminal statutes. He cannot immunize anyone from a state investigation. His clemency power stops at the federal border, period.
So Biden already played his federal pardon card, Fauci already pleaded the Fifth over a hundred times, and now Florida has opened a door that no autopen on earth can shut. Grab your popcorn, folks.
Read more conservative news commentary at: USA Journal News
