New York University School of Law professor Ryan Goodman warned that Dr. Anthony Fauci’s decision to invoke the Fifth Amendment and decline to answer multiple questions at a tense Senate hearing on Wednesday may not work in his favor.
“I think it makes it worse. It’s even a curious way in which you wonder what his legal advice was, why they decided to do that, because he does not face criminal jeopardy for the pardon,” Goodman said on CNN’s “OutFront.” “In all likelihood, his pardon for all actions before January 2025. But that also means that you’re forced to testify.”
On the advice of counsel, Fauci refused to answer several questions by Republican lawmakers at Wednesday’s hearing over the origins of COVID-19, invoking his right to remain silent 112 times.
He said he invoked the Fifth Amendment toward Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) line of questioning because of the lawmaker’s “obsession” with prosecuting him.
“Any reasonable person who has followed his unhinged obsession with me would readily come to the same conclusion,” Fauci testified.
However, according to Goodman, Fauci “could then be held in contempt, noting that “there could be theoretically at least the Justice Department that goes after him for not answering when he is not really facing that criminal charge.”
President Donald Trump, a vocal critic of former President Joe Biden’s pardons, told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday that he respects Fauci’s pardon, which was preemptively given to him to protect him from potentially politically motivated charges.
“The most powerful thing a president has, they say, is the power of pardon. So he was pardoned by Biden, and I respect that. I know how powerful it is. … They say it’s literally the most powerful thing a president has,” Trump said.
“That’s the strongest argument that Fauci’s lawyers have,” Goodman told host Erin Burnett.
“So Fauci’s lawyers can try this one path,” Goodman said, “and they can say, ‘Look, he can’t testify today because the president himself has said all of these pardons are void, and if they’re void, then he really does have criminal liability.’”
He added, however, that the Justice Department may not respect the pardon.
“There’s the prospect that this Justice Department, as it’s shown in other politicized cases, does try to get an indictment, even though that indictment will not go anywhere because the pardon will stick,” Goodman concluded. “But the president of the United States, himself, has repeatedly said the pardons are void and not effective because of auto-pens or things like that.”