Opinion | Dr. Fauci Takes the Fifth, Alas

The pandemic oracle is getting the scrutiny he dodged during Covid.

'My goodness': Jaws drop as Trump nominee's law firm joins attack on E. Jean Carroll

Lawyers are reacting with shock after a white-shoe law firm officially joined the fight against an $83.3 million verdict writer E. Jean Carroll won against President Donald Trump.Sullivan & Cromwell — whose partner Jamie McDonald was sworn in Wednesday as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, the country's most prestigious federal prosecutor's office — filed a petition Tuesday asking the Supreme Court to overturn the verdict, Bloomberg Law reported.McDonald had served as a personal lawyer to Trump at Sullivan & Cromwell before the president nominated him to his current post, Politico reported."This is shocking," New York criminal defense attorney Scott Greenfield wrote on X, reacting to the firm's move."My goodness. There it is. The once-venerated white-shoe New York law firm of @sullcrom is representing an adjudicated rapist in a case brought by the victim," attorney and Democratic congressional candidate George Conway wrote on X."I never thought I would live to see something like this. Wow," Conway added.Carroll, a former magazine advice columnist, alleged Trump sexually assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the mid-1990s. She sued after Trump denied the allegation while serving as president in 2019.A jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation in 2023, awarding Carroll $5 million, CNBC reported.A second jury awarded her $83.3 million for defamation in January 2024. Both verdicts were upheld on appeal, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Trump's challenge to the $5 million award last month, CNBC reported."I practiced law for 40 years. The most valuable thing I ever had was my credibility & good reputation with the court and fellow counsel," New York attorney Catherine Cullen wrote on Bluesky. "Sullivan & Cromwell just tossed theirs in the trash."When Sullivan & Cromwell took Trump on as a client last year, firm co-chair Robert Giuffra promised partners it would stay out of the Carroll cases, the Wall Street Journal reported.Giuffra reversed course after Trump's personal lawyer Boris Epshteyn pushed the firm to take on the Carroll matter, prompting a revolt among some partners, the Journal reported.Sullivan & Cromwell has become a direct pipeline to top Justice Department posts, Politico reported. McDonald's predecessor at the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, was also a Sullivan & Cromwell alum.The petition asks the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that Trump's White House statements denying Carroll's allegations were official presidential acts shielded by immunity — and to wipe out the $83.3 million judgment."What's most astonishing about this is S&C doesn't need the fees, and Trump usually stiffs his lawyers," Conway wrote on X in a follow-up post.The petition was filed the day before McDonald was sworn in as U.S. Attorney.

Hammer drop exposes Todd Blanche to judge hours before confirmation vote

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's own admissions about FBI negligence in the Epstein case landed in federal court today, hours before his Senate confirmation vote.Survivors' attorneys filed the letter Wednesday before Judge Ryon McCabe in the Southern District of Florida in the case Doe 1 et al. v. United States. The filing suggests the survivors believe Blanche admitted wrongdoing by the FBI in a rush to deflect responsibility for failures in the Epstein case.The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on Blanche's confirmation Thursday morning.The letter cites Blanche's statements at a July 16 meeting with survivors at Justice Department headquarters as grounds to amend the complaint. Plaintiffs said they were "seeking this relief in light of acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's very recent statements to survivors."During that meeting, ABC News reported, survivors described Blanche's conduct as "dissatisfactory and contrived" when he dismissed survivor Maria Farmer, telling her that her "call [to the FBI about EpsteinI] was made in 1996," "the case was handled improperly before 2007" and "you got screwed over by the FBI but I cannot fix the FBI's lack of investigation."Those admissions, the filing shows, now sit in a federal court record the day before senators decide Blanche's fate.The underlying lawsuit, filed in September 2024, represents 33 women suing the U.S. government under the Federal Tort Claims Act — a law that allows citizens to sue the federal government for negligence — for the FBI's failures in the Epstein case. They are seeking more than $100 million.The complaint alleges the FBI received its first credible tip in 1996, when Maria Farmer reported that Epstein and Maxwell had sexually abused her and her sister. The FBI did nothing.It also alleges the FBI ignored child sexual abuse material seized in a 2005 raid of Epstein's Palm Beach mansion, failed to interview victims whose names and phone numbers it already had, and allowed Epstein to judge a beauty pageant in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2007 while under active investigation.Epstein survivor Annie Farmer, who testified at Ghislaine Maxwell's criminal trial, said she left the meeting convinced senators should vote against Blanche, ABC News reported. She called him "abrasive, condescending, and intentionally noncommittal to survivors."Annie Farmer said his evasiveness felt like "a deliberate attempt to claim the Attorney General's office is powerless in this matter.""The FBI has the power to open investigations, not me," Blanche told those assembled inside the meeting, MS NOW reported. "I'm just the attorney general," he added.The meeting only happened because Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), whose vote Blanche needs to clear the Judiciary Committee, demanded it as a condition of his support, ABC News reported. As of Wednesday afternoon, Tillis had still not committed to voting for Blanche's confirmation.That vote is scheduled for Thursday morning.

Birx says Fauci hearing shows there's still anger over handling of COVID

Dr. Deborah Birx offered "The Takeout" her takeaways on what the contentious Senate hearing with former colleague Dr. Anthony Fauci says about the nation's ability to move on from COVID.

‘Too many bad calls’: Trump confirms he warned Biden about ‘CRAZY’ Anthony Fauci

Democrat gave COVID adviser 'vast destructive power' and 'the rest is history'

First Fauci. Now Biden. The Lies Are Finally Catching Up! (VIDEO)

Dr. The post First Fauci. Now Biden. The Lies Are Finally Catching Up! (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Biden-Pardoned Fauci Now Faces Florida State Investigation

Florida Announces Investigation Into Fauci Since His Pardon Isn't for State Charges