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Trump Suggests Fauci Should Be Prosecuted
U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday suggested that Dr. Anthony Fauci should be prosecuted, hours after Republican Senator Rand Paul said that he would ask the Justice Department to do so. Paul said he wanted action after Fauci refused to answer questions about the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fauci, who led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for 38 years, became the face of the response and a primary target of anger over measures taken against a virus that killed more than 1.1 million Americans. When asked if the Justice Department should prosecute Fauci, Trump told reporters that former aides Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon had faced similar action “over something that essentially was never prosecuted before, and there are sort of telltale signs of similarity.”
The Republican president added: “When you see that happen, you sort of say maybe he should (be prosecuted). What he did is far more serious than a lot of crimes, frankly.”
Hellbent on Putting Fauci in Jail, Rand Paul Wants to Skip a Senate Vote
Rand Paul wants to fast-track prosecution of former Covid czar Anthony Fauci. The legal process will be fraught. After the Kentucky Republican pushed a contempt of Congress resolution through his Senate committee on party lines Thursday morning — saying Fauci had impeded his investigation of the pandemic by refusing to answer questions last week — Democrats demanded he take it to the full Senate for a vote they could filibuster.
Paul said he’s going to instead take it straight to the attorney general. For Fauci, the difference is massive. A failed Senate vote to hold him in contempt would show he’s still got defenders after Republicans released a diary showing his enthusiasm for fame and then grilled him while he took the Fifth.
A referral to the attorney general puts a decision on prosecution in the hands of a Trump Justice Department that has shown it’s willing to play politics.
Government’s Complex Case Against PFAS Manufacturer 3M Laid out in Federal Court
Australian Broadcasting Network reported:
A Federal Court judge has described the Commonwealth’s $2 billion lawsuit against the chemical manufacturing company 3M over PFAS contamination at defence bases as “daunting”. During the first case management hearing in Federal Court today the two parties agreed the Australian government’s claim was “large and complex”. It heard a 1,600 page statement of claim has been filed about alleged soil and water contamination at 28 defence bases across Australia, where firefighting foam containing PFAS chemicals was used.
Justice Catherine Button told the court sitting in Melbourne she had “never seen a claim like this … and to characterise it as daunting would be an understatement, daunting for everybody”. In March the Commonwealth announced it was seeking damages from US-based chemical manufacturer 3M and 3M Australia.
It is the largest legal claim ever brought by the federal government, attempting to recoup the costs associated with investigating, managing and remediating contamination from the legacy use of AFFF firefighting foam. It alleges the company withheld the results of its own environmental laboratory testing that shows there were significant adverse environmental effects associated with its PFAS products.
Justice Department Secures Agreement with Connecticut Children’s to End Pediatric ‘Gender-Affirming Care’
U.S. Department of Justice reported:
Connecticut Children’s becomes the third hospital to reach an agreement with the Department of Justice to stop providing sex-rejecting procedures to minors. Today, the Department of Justice announced another resolution with a leading children’s medical center arising from the Department’s ongoing national investigation into violations of federal law in connection with the provision of sex-rejecting procedures on minors (otherwise known as “gender-affirming care”).
Connecticut Children’s Medical Center has entered into agreements with the Department that entail a commitment not to perform sex-rejecting procedures on minors — including by administering puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to and performing surgeries on children and adolescents. Connecticut Children’s has also agreed to pay a monetary penalty and dedicate an additional $500,000 in medical care for individuals living with the harmful consequences of “gender affirming care.”
“The Department of Justice will stop at nothing to protect America’s children,” said Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward. “This resolution is a reminder to hospitals, medical providers, and pharmaceutical companies that the Justice Department will vigorously enforce federal law, especially where the lives of children are endangered.”
After Explosive Federal Report, Congress Fears Plummeting Trust in Organ Donation
Members of a congressional oversight committee said Tuesday that they fear public trust in organ donation has been fractured after a federal report found that an organ procurement organization ignored signs of life in patients when authorizing attempted organ removals.
The hearing followed a federal investigation by the Health Resources and Services Administration that found that a group responsible for overseeing the removal of organs from deceased patients and getting them to patients in need exhibited “concerning patterns of risk to neurologically injured patients.”
“For every doctor, the most important tenet in the patient-physician relationship is above all, do no harm, but what happened in these cases fractured the physician-patient relationship and saw patients subjected to pain and suffering that never should have occurred,” House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations subcommittee Chair Rep. John Joyce (R-Pa.) said in his opening statement.
Republicans Vote Down Farm Bill Amendment Enabling Lawsuits Against Pesticide Companies, a Blow to MAHA
Senate Republicans on Thursday voted down an amendment that sought to open up Americans’ ability to sue pesticide companies over the health impacts of their products.
The amendment to the Senate farm bill failed in a party-line vote.
While the measure was backed by all of the Senate Agriculture Committee’s Democrats and none of its Republicans, it’s also a blow to pesticide critics in the right-wing “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) movement.
It’s something that MAHA-aligned GOP members of the House are also pushing for.
The amendment, brought by Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), would have clarified that pesticide labeling requirements in the nation’s pesticide law do not block a person’s ability to sue a chemical company over failure-to-warn of additional health impacts.
