81-year-old Dr. Anthony Fauci had to sit for a seven-hour deposition [1] last week because of a lawsuit from two attorneys general who sued over claims of federal and corporate censorship.
The lawsuit alleges that many government officials from different agencies colluded with social media companies to control communications about COVID-19. In addition to Fauci, other officials in the suit include President Biden, former Press Secretary Jen Psaki, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Fox News reports that Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt filed the lawsuit [2] in May. They both questioned the great doctor under oath recently concerning his alleged role in colluding with Big Tech to censor the public.
What did we learn? Tweets from Schmitt and Landry tell us the Fauci professed ignorance when tough questions came at him. Landry tweeted that Fauci “can’t recall practically anything dealing with his Covid response.”
In one of the exchanges where Fauci was asked about his resistance to a Declaration by scientists who said to focus on protecting high-risk groups like the elderly instead of shutting down everyone, Fauci said, “I have a very busy day job running a $6 billion institute. I don’t have time to worry about things like the Great Barrington Declaration.”
Fauci obviously forgot that two weeks after the Declaration was released, he had emailed White House COVID-19 chief Deborah Birx and said, “I have come out very strongly publicly against the Great Barrington Declaration.” He also did interviews pushing back against those who said lockdowns were unnecessary.
Fox News reports the lawsuit says the federal government violated constitutional rights to suppress free speech in “one of its greatest assaults by federal government officials in the Nation’s history” including coercion, threats and pressure towards social media platforms to “censor disfavored speakers and viewpoints by using threats of adverse government action.”
And what about Fauci’s REAL conclusion about whether masks protect the public from COVID-19?
Missouri AG Schmitt tweeted that Fauci emailed a friend and said that masks were “ineffective.” He did this before publicly supporting wearing the masks. The email was February 2020 and again at the end of March but in the beginning of April he publicly told everyone to wear them.
Schmitt said in a statement, “Since we filed our landmark lawsuit, we have uncovered documents and discovery that show clear coordination between the Biden Administration and social media companies on censoring speech, but we’re not done yet. We plan to get answers on behalf of the American people. Stay tuned.”