In May 2022, the New Civil Liberties
Alliance and the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana (Eric
Schmitt and Jeff Landry) sued1
President Biden for illegally colluding with social media companies to
suppress Americans' First Amendment rights to free speech, and to ban or
deplatform those who shared unauthorized views about COVID and
vaccines.
In early October 2022, after the discovery process revealed the names
of federal officials actively engaged in behind-the-scenes censoring of
Americans, dozens of defendants were added to the lawsuit, bringing the
total number of named defendants to 67.2,3 As reported by the New Civil Liberties Alliance September 1, 2022:4
"… scores of federal officials … have secretly communicated with
social-media platforms to censor and suppress private speech federal
officials disfavor. This unlawful enterprise has been wildly successful.
Under the First Amendment, the federal government may not police
private speech nor pick winners and losers in the marketplace of ideas.
But that is precisely what the government has done — and is still doing —
on a massive scale not previously divulged."
Background on the Case
Not surprisingly, the White House fought to keep communications
secret — especially with regard to Dr. Anthony Fauci's correspondence —
claiming all White House communications as "privileged."
However, executive privilege does not apply to external
communications, so in early September 2022, Judge Terry Doughty rejected
the Biden administration's claim of executive privilege and ordered the
White House to hand over any and all relevant records,5,6 including correspondence to and from Fauci.
October 21, 2022, the court also authorized7 expedited depositions of eight key federal officials named in the 'case,' Fauci included.8,9 The DOJ then asked the judge for a protective order to keep videotaped depositions under seal,10 effectively demonstrating that it's onboard with these unconstitutional activities.
In the end, the depositions were not kept secret. Fauci's deposition took place November 23, 2022,11 and the full transcript12 was released December 5.13 In a December 5, 2022, press release, Schmitt stated:14
"Missouri and Louisiana are leading the way in exposing how the
federal government and the Biden Administration worked with social media
to censor speech. In our deposition with Dr. Fauci, it became clear
that when Dr. Fauci speaks, social media censors.
I encourage everyone to read the deposition transcript and see
exactly how Dr. Fauci operates, and exactly how the COVID tyranny that
ruined lives and destroyed businesses was born."
AG Landry added:15
"Fauci's recent deposition only confirmed what we already knew:
federal bureaucrats in collusion with social media companies want to
control not only what you think, but especially what you say.
During no time in human history was this more obvious than during
the COVID-19 crisis where social engineering tactics were used against
the American public, not to limit your exposure to a virus, but to limit
your exposure to information that did not fit within a government
sanctioned narrative."
Fauci Suffers Acute Memory Loss
Ironically, Fauci, who last year claimed16
to be the personification of science itself and whose statements could
not be challenged or questioned, suddenly could not recall much of
anything and even claimed he's unqualified to speak on certain issues
related to the virus, as seen in the extract below.
According to the transcript, Fauci answered questions with "I don't
recall" 174 times. He also claimed he didn't know key collaborators and
was only vaguely familiar with projects he funded at the WIV, the lab in
or from which the COVID-19 pandemic appears to have originated. As
noted by Justin Goodman with the White Coat Waste Project:17
"What really jumped out at me … is that in the deposition Fauci
definitively states at numerous points that it is 'impossible' that the
animal experiments that he funded in Wuhan could have sparked the
pandemic.
At the same time, he claims he's only 'vaguely familiar' with the
project he was funding there and that he barely knows the key players,
including Shi Zhengli, Peter Daszak, Ralph Baric and EcoHealth Alliance.
He can't have it both ways."
Indeed, how can Fauci have almost no insight into the research he
funded over the years yet be "certain" that none of it resulted in the
creation of SARS-CoV-2?
Since February 2020, I've been keeping my readers abreast on the
ever-mounting evidence showing SARS-CoV-2 was manmade, and possibly the
result of intentional bioweapons development. A number of those articles
are shown in the video below, posted on Twitter by a user named NOBODY
AF.
Wild West in Wuhan
In a February 4, 2020, email (below), Fauci emailed then-director of
the NIH, Dr. Francis Collins and Wellcome Trust director Jeremy Farrar:
"?? Serial passage in ACE2-transgenic mice."
The possibility that SARS-CoV-2 might have been created using a
process known as serial passaging through mice with human ACE2 receptors
has been raised several times since then.18 It's one way in which you can give a virus new abilities without resorting to gene editing.
"Exactly!" Farrar replied. Fauci was obviously surprised that such
experiments had taken place in a biosafety 2 lab (BSL-2) in Wuhan, to
which Farrar replied "Wild West," an indication that the research
industry, which wants to regulate itself, is out of control, conducting
risky experiments in labs that aren't set up to handle dangerous
pathogens.
The implication here is that doing gain of function research in a
level 2 lab massively increases the risk of that pathogen escaping, as
BSL-2s do not have the proper containment measures. Yet, mere days
later, in an interview with Newt Gingrich, Fauci flatly rejected claims
that there were concerns about the safety practiced at the Wuhan lab,
calling it "a conspiracy theory."19
In January 2021, the U.S. State Department released a fact sheet20 on the Wuhan lab, based on classified materials, which again raised questions about safety at the Wuhan lab.
According to this report, "Scientists in China have researched
animal-derived coronaviruses under conditions that increased the risk
for accidental and potentially unwitting exposure." The report also
noted that the WIV was engaged in classified research on behalf of the
Chinese military, and that the lab had "not been transparent or
consistent about its record of studying viruses most similar to the
COVID-19 virus."
Fauci's Suppression of The Great Barrington Declaration
Fauci was also deposed about his suppression of The Great Barrington Declaration,
which called for focused protection of the vulnerable and isolation of
those infected rather than nationwide lockdowns. Focused protection has
been a longstanding basic principle of public health that we've followed
for decades.
Emails reveal Fauci and Collins colluded behind the scenes to quash
the declaration from Day 1, and since they couldn't defend lockdowns
based on science, they resorted to propaganda, PR and smear tactics
instead. In an October 8, 2020, email to Fauci, Collins wrote:21,22,23,24
"The proposal from the three fringe epidemiologists … seems to be
getting a lot of attention … There needs to be a quick and devastating
published take down of its premises …"
"Don't worry, I got this," Fauci replied. Later, Fauci sent Collins
links to newly published articles refuting the focused protection
solution, including an op-ed in Wired magazine, and an article in The
Nation titled "Focused Protection, Herd Immunity and Other Deadly
Delusions."
In his deposition, however, Fauci suddenly could not recall how or when he became aware of the Declaration.
When confronted with Collins' October 8 email, Fauci could only
"vaguely" remember getting the email, and could not recall whether he'd
actually read the Declaration, which Collins linked to.
Either way, Fauci claimed the Declaration had been of little interest
to him. "I wouldn't imagine that I would be overwhelmingly interested,"
Fauci said. He also couldn't remember if he'd ever responded to
Collins' email, even though he'd promised Collins to take care of the
problem, and later sent links to propaganda articles that tried to
debunk focused protection.
When asked, "Do you know what he's referring to when he talks about a
quick and devastating takedown?" Fauci replied "I do not know what he's
referring to. I would imagine I was thinking that someone would take
the counterargument of what the premise was … I don't know specifically
what he meant … He's likely talking about writing a scholarly article to
contest some of the premises … That would be his style."
Collins, however, never composed a scholarly article to counter the
focused protection argument. Instead, mainstream media suddenly
published articles that were critical of it — after Fauci told Collins,
"I got this."
When the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER) recently
filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the NIH for
Fauci's correspondence about The Great Barrington Declaration with
British counterparts, they received 61 pages of emails, 58 of which were
completely redacted.25 Clearly, the NIH does not want to admit to whatever was said in those emails.
Emails Reveal Daszak's Role in Shaping Public Messaging
In a December 8, 2022, article,26
U.S. Right to Know (USRTK) reviewed emails showing EcoHealth Alliance
president Peter Daszak played a central role in the creation of the
public messaging about COVID-19's origin and "helped steer the media and
scientific community away from questions about whether COVID-19 could
have originated in a lab."
This is notable, considering Daszak was the middleman who funneled
funding for gain of function research on coronaviruses from the National
Institutes of Health (NIH) through the EcoHealth Alliance to the WIV.
USRTK writes:27
"Emails between Daszak and University of North Carolina
virologist Ralph Baric, another collaborator of the laboratory at the
pandemic's epicenter, offer new behind-the-scenes insights into Daszak's
influence.
Baric's experiments with the Wuhan lab included gain-of-function
experiments to make viruses more transmissible or virulent. The White
House was dissuaded from investigating the possibility of a lab origin
of COVID-19 in part by discussions that included both Daszak and Baric,
according to a March 2020 email28 written by Daszak.
And in a separate May 2020 email,29
Daszak told Baric that he used talking points intended to discourage
reporters from asking questions about potential gain-of-function work on
coronaviruses …
These new revelations add to the evidence of Daszak's central
role in shaping public perceptions about COVID-19's origins. He secretly30 organized a statement31 in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet deeming a lab origin a 'conspiracy theory.'
He served as the U.S. representative on the 2021 World Health
Organization origins investigation in China, which dismissed a lab
origin as 'extremely unlikely.' He also formerly chaired a Lancet
Commission probe into the origins of COVID-19 which was disbanded after
Daszak declined to share his grant reports …
Daszak and Baric both participated in the task force convened by
the National Academies to inform the White House's science office about
information required to determine the origin of the pandemic …
'I don't think this committee will be getting into the lab
release or bioengineering hypothesis again any time soon — White House
seems to be satisfied with the earlier meeting, paper in Nature and
general comments within [the] scientific community,' Daszak told32 Baric."
In a May 6, 2020, email,33
Daszak also coached Baric on how to deflect and steer questions about
gain of function research that might have contributed to the creation of
SARS-CoV-2. Daszak said he would "practice lines" to deflect and change
the topic to natural spillover.
Proposed Legislation Aims to Penalize Government Censorship
While the U.S. Constitution guarantees certain rights, including the
right to free speech, this inviolable law of the land has not been able
to prevent encroaching tyranny, thanks to the fact that those charged
with adhering to it and upholding it aren't doing their jobs. They're
blatantly snubbing their noses at it, pretending as though it doesn't
exist.
In response, three Republican House Representatives on the House
Oversight and Reform, Judiciary, and Commerce committees — Reps. James
Comer of Kentucky, Jim Jordan of Ohio, and Cathy McMorris Rodgers of
Washington — have introduced the Protecting Speech from Government
Interference Act34
(HR.8752), specifically aimed at preventing federal employees from
using their positions to influence censorship decisions by tech
platforms.
The bill would create restrictions to prevent federal employees from
asking or encouraging private entities to censor private speech or
otherwise discourage free speech, and impose penalties, including civil
fines and disciplinary actions for government employees who facilitate
social media censorship.
While the U.S. Constitution clearly forbids government censoring and
restricting free speech, HR. 8752 could be a helpful enforcement tool —
and we clearly need enforcement — as people might tend to think twice
when they know there's a price to pay, both personally and financially.
If you agree, call on your representatives to back HR. 8752.