There was a time in this country when public service actually meant something. A man took an oath, and he understood — deeply, personally — that he answered to the citizens who paid his salary. Not the other way around. The Founders didn’t design a government of unchecked bureaucrats wielding royal authority. They designed a republic. Somewhere along the way, certain people in Washington forgot that.

During the worst of COVID, Americans sacrificed everything. They buried loved ones alone. They watched businesses they’d spent decades building collapse under lockdown orders. Children stayed home from school. Congregations scattered. Families missed final goodbyes — all because the experts insisted it was necessary. But while ordinary Americans obeyed the rules, at least one powerful man at the top was operating on a completely different wavelength.

From Fox News:

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is introducing legislation to block federal bureaucrats from accepting cash prizes on Thursday, just a day after laying into Dr. Anthony Fauci for receiving what Hawley said was over $1 million during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hawley accused Fauci during a Wednesday Senate hearing of exploiting loopholes in federal laws that already prohibit government employees from soliciting rewards like cash prizes. Hawley’s bill, dubbed the No Cash Prizes for Bureaucrats Act, would close those loopholes.

Here’s what actually happened on Wednesday: Anthony Fauci — armed with a preemptive pardon from Joe Biden and flanked by a small army of attorneys — sat before the United States Senate and refused to answer a single question. Not about gain-of-function research. Not about Wuhan. Not even about the color of his tie. He invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times. Let that number sink in for a moment.

This is not the behavior of an innocent man. This is a man who knows exactly what he did, and he’s terrified the rest of us might finally find out.

Getting rich while America died

Senator Hawley presented the receipts — and they are staggering. Internal emails reveal that while the pandemic was still raging in 2020, Fauci directed federal employees on the taxpayer payroll to solicit cash prizes for him personally. His chief of staff Greg Folkers worked to “beef up the COVID part” of a nomination for the Dan David Prize. Think about that phrase for a second. People were dying, and Fauci’s team was polishing his award application.

That single prize carried a $900,000 check. Across at least eight separate awards, Fauci’s staff became what Hawley aptly described as a “full-time application machine.” Federal law expressly prohibits government employees from using official resources to pursue personal cash awards. Fauci didn’t bend the rules. He shattered them and pocketed the proceeds.

“You became a narcissist and a megalomaniac and a liar,” Hawley told Fauci to his face. “And you’ve lied to the American people and you’ve lied to this body.”

Hard to argue with that assessment when the man won’t even open his mouth to defend himself.

A pardoned man with nothing to say

Here’s the rich irony of Fauci’s Fifth Amendment strategy. Hawley reminded him that the Supreme Court settled this question back in 1896 in Brown v. Walker: a pardoned individual cannot claim the privilege against self-incrimination because the pardon eliminates any criminal jeopardy. Biden’s pardon was designed to be a shield. It should have been the very thing that forced Fauci to talk. Instead, he hid behind it like a child behind a curtain — visible to everyone, fooling no one.

Chairman Rand Paul wasn’t having any of it either. He ejected Fauci’s lead attorney from the witness table after repeated disruptions and announced that the full Senate will vote next week on holding Fauci in contempt of Congress. About time.

What the documents reveal

The most damning moment came from Senator James Lankford, who read aloud from Fauci’s own handwritten notes dated February 1, 2020 — before the first American had even died from COVID. In those notes, Fauci acknowledged that scientists believed the virus may have been deliberately engineered and possibly released from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. He named the lab. He named the lead researcher, Shi Zhengli.

He knew. On Day One, he knew.

And then he spent the next two years publicly branding anyone who suggested a lab leak as a dangerous conspiracy theorist. As Senator Rick Scott told him bluntly: “You destroyed the federal government’s credibility when it comes to public health.”

Close the loopholes — then close the cell door

Hawley’s No Cash Prizes for Bureaucrats Act is a worthy reform. Closing legal loopholes that allowed this kind of self-dealing is basic governance. But let’s not kid ourselves — new paperwork requirements are not justice. A man who enriched himself while Americans died alone in hospital hallways, who lied under oath about funding gain-of-function research, whose senior adviser David Morens has been indicted on five federal counts including conspiracy against the United States — this man doesn’t need new legislation.

He needs handcuffs.

The American people didn’t sacrifice everything during COVID so that Anthony Fauci could collect prize money and plead the Fifth. Over a million of them are dead. They deserve more than his rehearsed silence. They deserve an arrest.

Key Takeaways

• Fauci used taxpayer-funded staff to personally solicit over $1 million in cash prizes during COVID.
• He invoked the Fifth Amendment over 100 times, refusing to answer even basic questions.
• His own 2020 notes prove he knew the virus may have been engineered in Wuhan.
• Closing legal loopholes is insufficient — Fauci should face criminal prosecution.

Sources: Fox News, Todayville Edmonton