Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) suggested on Thursday that Dr. Anthony Fauci should face perjury charges for “lying under oath” to Congress about the origins of COVID-19.
The Texas Republican made the comments condemning President Biden’s former chief medical advisor at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, just days after the Wall Street Journal reported that the Department of Energy now believes that COVID-19 originated from a Chinese laboratory.
“There has been no person who has done more to destroy trust in the scientific and medical community than Dr. Anthony Fauci, who told millions of Americans lies willingly, knowingly, glibly and supremely arrogantly,” Cruz told the crowd at CPAC.
“In any sane system, he would be prosecuted for lying under oath, and he would go to jail for lying under oath to Congress,” Cruz said.
Fauci — who retired at the end of last year after more than five decades in government – has long dismissed the so-called “lab-leak theory” of COVID-19’s origin, calling it at one point a “shiny object that will go away in times.”
On numerous occasions he also put forth that “the most likely origin” of the virus “is from an animal species to a human,” and has claimed that it was “molecularly impossible” for the viruses being worked on at the Wuhan Institute of Virology to have mutated into the one responsible for the pandemic.
Fauci has also been accused by Republicans of lying about funding the National Institutes of Health provided the Wuhan laboratory for “gain-of-function” research.
Cruz doubted on Thursday that the Biden administration’s Justice Department would bring up charges against the former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, calling it “0.000%” likely and deriding the DOJ under Biden as “lawless.”
However, Cruz vowed the the Republican-led House would investigate Fauci to figure out how he allegedly “misled the American people and the corruption that drove that.”
“We have a majority in the House, and I am confident that we’re going to use that majority and use it to hold Dr. Fauci and the others who lied accountable,” Cruz said.
On Tuesday FBI Director Christopher Wray confirmed the bureau’s reported stance that the COVID-19 virus came from a Chinese lab leak, backing-up the DOE’s reportedly “low confidence” findings.