Gov Ron DeSantis Skeptical Fauci will be accountable, citing Pardon/Statute of Limitations

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If you've been given a pardon, you typically then don't go invoke the Fifth Amendment," DeSantis said. "You actually can be compelled to testify if you don't have an underlying legal risk from the conduct at issue.

"The fact that he took the Fifth Amendment either means he's subject to contempt of Congress, which they could potentially pursue, or he's acknowledging that Biden's pardon didn't necessarily cover all the potential lines of inquiry."

Paul has scheduled a committee vote for Aug. 5 on a resolution declaring Fauci in contempt of Congress. Generally, a witness who validly invokes the Fifth Amendment cannot be held in contempt solely for refusing to answer questions on that basis.

"Now, what you would need is one, you would need to have violations of state law," DeSantis said. "So, when he was testifying years ago, and a lot of us think he perjured himself in front of Congress, that wouldn't implicate state law.

"If there are things he was doing during COVID that would implicate state law, then you potentially could do it.

"But then you would also have to have personal jurisdiction. So there needs to be a nexus between him and a given state. Now, he did travel to Florida, I know.

"What was his conduct when he was here? I'm not sure."

DeSantis said another hurdle is the statute of limitations, which he said in most cases is five years.

"Most of his offending conduct was 2020 and 2021," DeSantis said. "Well, we're in 2026. Most statute of limitations is five years. So, I think that there's going to be a lot of significant hurdles to do it."

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