‘Do You Feel Like You’re in Deep Sh*t?’: Senator Presses Fauci on Fifth Amendment Reliance and Ejected Criminal Lawyer

Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) flat-out asked Dr. Anthony Fauci during a Wednesday hearing if he thought he was in “deep sh*t” based on his pleading the Fifth Amendment and bringing a team of lawyers along with him.

Fauci appeared before the Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee following the release of his Covid-era “diary,” and he chose to plead the Fifth when grilled about the origins of Covid and lockdown measures taken during the pandemic.

Moreno noted during his time at the hearing that Fauci had brought along criminal attorney David Schertler, whom Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) ejected from the proceedings when he interrupted and refused to follow instructions, choosing to sit at the table with Fauci rather than behind him with the rest of his lawyers.

Moreno asked Fauci to define the Fifth Amendment and who wrote it as Fauci continued pleading the Fifth and refusing to answer.

“So you’re invoking a right that you don’t know who wrote it or what it says, is that correct?” the senator asked.

“On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution,” Fauci said, repeating a phrase he threw out dozens of times during the hearing.

“Wow,” Moreno said.

The senator then gave background to Schertler, noting he previously represented Bob Menendez, a former Democratic senator who was sentenced to 11 years after being found guilty on multiple charges, including bribery and acting as a foreign agent.

“Let me tell you who David Schertler is because he was ejected by the chairman,” Moreno said. “He’s a high-profile criminal attorney. He’s represented some really great people like Senator Bob Menendez, maybe that’s somebody who my Democrat colleagues might remember took gold bars as bribes from the Egyptians, and there is an article here in the Washington Free Beacon that talks about why you would hire a guy like him. The comment is, if you are in deep sh*t that’s who you call. Do you feel like you are in deep sh*t?”

Fauci again pleaded the Fifth.

Moreno went off on Fauci and asked members of the audience to stand up if they had faced pushback or even lost their jobs during the pandemic for questioning and/or criticizing measures promoted by Fauci when he was the director of director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

The senator said:

Clearly what you think today is that somehow you are above reproach. Somehow you feel like you don’t need to be treated like a normal American. Can you do me a favor in the audience and stand up if during the time of the Covid pandemic you were called a racist for calling the virus a Wuhan virus or the China virus? If you thought the six foot rule was total crap. If you thought the vaccine wasn’t something you should take, if you thought it was outrageous the way the mask policy was rolled out. If you were fired from your job for not taking that vaccine, including members of the military, if you thought closing schools was catastrophically stupid and that you thought that during these times saying these things made you somehow a lesser human being.

Moreno then pressed Fauci to look behind him at the people standing, but Fauci refused. At one point he consulted one of his lawyers and then offered his stock answer.

“Dr. Fauci, could you turn around and look at the people behind you? You not willing to do that?” Moreno asked. “That’s not a question. It’s not a question. To your lawyer it is not a question, it’s a request.”

Watch above via Fox News.

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