Raw StoryFar Left
Rattled Rand Paul makes moves to potentially jail Fauci after heated Senate hearing
A visibly rattled Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) announced Wednesday he had scheduled a vote that could see senators hold Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress, a citation that, if referred to and acted on by the Justice Department, could carry criminal penalties of up to a year's imprisonment and up to $100,000 in fines.The former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Fauci was compelled to appear before the Senate Homeland Security Committee Wednesday to testify on his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. During the roughly three-hour hearing, Fauci repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent.Near the end of the hearing, Paul, the chair of the committee, acknowledged that Fauci had received a pardon from former President Joe Biden for conduct between Jan. 1, 2014 and Jan. 19, 2025. Given that Republican senators had also pressed Fauci on his conduct after Jan. 19, 2025, Paul, as the hearing was coming to a close, said he found Fauci's claimed privilege unfounded and explicitly ordered him to answer questions.Again, Fauci pleaded the Fifth.“Because you refuse to answer, citing a privilege that is unsupported because of your pardon, this committee has scheduled a vote next week on a resolution certifying your contempt,” Paul said.Fauci has come under renewed scrutiny in recent days following the publication of thousands of pages from his personal diary, details of which were repeatedly seized on by Republican senators during the hearing.Sen. @RandPaul calls to schedule a vote on a resolution to certify Anthony Fauci's contempt of Congress after the former health official pleaded the Fifth throughout his testimony pic.twitter.com/rIQWFc9rMN— Alexander Willis (@ReporterWillis) July 29, 2026
Read at Raw Story →The New RepublicLeft
John Roberts Sends Trump a Message After His Tirade on Supreme Court
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday called for an end to “personal hostility” toward judges, a not-so-subtle message that came just two days after President Trump went on a long diatribe about courts ruling against him.“It does come with the territory.… When any of us issue an opinion, it’s often a dissent,” Roberts said when asked how he handled criticism at a Baker Institute for Public Policy panel. “It’s important that our decisions are subjected to scrutiny, and they are. The problem sometimes is that the criticism can move from a focus on legal analysis to personalities. And you see—from all over, not just any one political perspective on it—that it’s more directed in a personal way. And that, frankly, can be actually quite dangerous.”Chief Justice John Roberts amid President Trump's criticism of judges: "Personally directed hostility is dangerous and it's got to stop." pic.twitter.com/Etrm1fe86B— CSPAN (@cspan) March 17, 2026“Judges around the country work very hard to get it right. And if they don’t, their opinions are subject to criticism,” Roberts continued. But personally directed hostility is dangerous, and it’s got to stop.”On Sunday night, Trump raged against “the courts,” including the Supreme Court, for ruling against his tariffs. He also took time to personally attack Judge James Boasberg—who axed his attack on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell last week.“They openly disrespect the Presidents who nominate them to the highest position in the Land, a Justice of the United States Supreme Court, and go out of their way, with bad and wrongful rulings and intentions, to prove how ‘honest,’ ‘independent,’ and ‘legitimate’ they are,” Trump wrote about the Supreme Court. “The Democrat Justices just vote Democrat—They always stick together! Our Country was unnecessarily RANSACKED by the United States Supreme Court, which has become little more than a weaponized and unjust Political Organization.”He then went on to attack Boasberg with similarly inflammatory language:The Courts treat Republicans, and me, so unfairly, always seeming to protect those who should not be protected. They are highly politicized. Cases don’t matter, the Judge does! As an example, how is this absolutely terrible Federal Reserve Chairman, Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell, not even allowed to be investigated for the horrible job he does? I strongly criticized Jerome ‘Too Late’ for his horrible performance throughout his tenure, which is either gross incompetence, total dishonesty, or both, and, in return for this well justified criticism, get viciously and wrongfully blamed by, as usual, a Wacky, Nasty, Crooked, and totally Out of Control Judge, named James Boasberg, a man who suffers from the highest level of Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS), and has been ‘after’ my people, and me, for years.Trump has long singled out judges who deliver rulings he doesn’t like. Just last month, Trump called Roberts, as well as Justices Neil Gorsuch, Amy Comey Barrett, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Sonia Sotomayor, “FOOLS and ‘LAPDOGS’ for the RINOS and Radical Left Democrats” for striking down his “Liberation Day” tariffs.
Read at The New Republic →