Fauci Florida Investigation: What charges could famous Covid advisor face?

Fauci Florida Investigation: What charges could famous Covid advisor face?

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) — We are following a developing story that has both state and national implications and goes back to the pandemic: Florida’s Attorney General says he wants to open an investigation into Dr. Anthony Fauci, after Fauci took the 5th Amendment repeatedly during a congressional hearing earlier this week.

But the CBS12 News I-team is asking, what could such an investigation actually amount to? Fauci got a Presidential Pardon from former President Biden.

If and when he is questioned by Florida officials, Fauci could invoke the 5th Amendment again, but there’s a big difference.

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His presidential pardon would not matter if a state is trying to bring criminal charges.

Flordia's AG, James Uthmeier, says he’s been strategizing about ways to do that.

That opens the door on a lot of questions.

For answers we spoke with attorneys Patrick McKamey and Dave Aronberg, both are former prosecutors and legal commentators, both have very different opinions about the prospect.

McKamey says Conspiracy is a charge that has no statute of limitations.

"The state could bring conspiracy charges for perpetrating the fraud that he was the architect of. His recommended policy interfered with interstate commerce," McKamey opined, "He defrauded the public by withholding information about the origin of the virus and he funded the same lab that created Covid 19."

Aronberg is skeptical and doubts such a case could ever get off the ground. "Where might it fall apart? I don’t even know what the charge would be. What would it be to charge an 85-year-old who served for decades as a public health advisor to 6 different presidents," Aronberg said. "What would you be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he did? And for Florida to prosecute a crime, an element would have to be in the geographical boundaries of Florida."

Republican Paul Renner, former FL House Speaker, currently running for Governor, says Fauci committed “acts of treason.”

Lt. Governor Jay Collins, also running for Governor, says he’s a “mass murderer.”

Fauci hasn’t publicly commented on any of this so far, but we learned he wasn’t a big fan of Governor DeSantis, writing in his journal that DeSantis is “a complete disgrace and a total jerk.”