Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and Missouri’s Attorney General Eric Schmitt in May sued Anthony Fauci, the Biden administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the FBI, alleging they censored American’s free speech on social media platforms.
Pointedly, Landry stated in an interview that aired on Newsmakers by NTD and The Epoch Times on Nov. 30, that “basically, when Anthony Fauci spoke, Americans were censored by Big Tech.”
Landry added that thanks to the First Amendment, the U.S. government is prohibited from censoring people’s speech. He said that same amendment also prevents the government from telling companies to censor speech on their behalf.
But that’s what happened during COVID-19, Landry alleged.
Landry further alleged that government cooperation isn’t limited to the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s instead happening in many instances and gave the example of what he claimed was a media and government cover up of the Hunter Biden laptop story.
Landry’s lawsuit against the U.S. government is still in the discovery phase. As such, Landry recently deposed Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), because Fauci’s medical advice was essentially law during the pandemic.
Without giving the exact details of the deposition, Landry affirmed that during questioning, Fauci claimed he couldn’t recall key details about his actions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Landry said they presented Fauci with his emails and directives he signed off on, but he still claimed ignorance.
Landry also said during the deposition that lawyers covered everything from the origins of COVID-19 through Fauci’s response. They even went so far as to question the details surrounding using therapeutics like ivermectin.
However, he stated, “I can tell you this; this lawsuit is not going away. We intend to take this to trial.”
Landry added that he filed a lawsuit after the DHS established a Disinformation Governance Board (DGB).
In June, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) released a letter he sent to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
The letter stated that despite DHS claims to the contrary, “documents show that the DGB was designed to be the department’s central hub, clearinghouse, and gatekeeper for administration policy and response to whatever it happened to decide was ‘disinformation.’”
“This is where the government is going out there and censoring Americans’ ability to speak to one another on social platforms. [The U.S. government is] utilizing the social platform in a way to manipulate the American public into a one-size fits all policy.”
Biggest First Amendment Lawsuit
Moving to what might happen with Republicans taking back control of the U.S. House of Representatives—and their promise to hold Fauci accountable for his actions—Landry said he can only imagine what’ll happen once Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) gets ahold of Fauci’s deposition transcript.
Landry added about Jordan’s probability of subpoenaing Fauci, “It’ll be interesting to see if [Fauci] can’t recall [key details] there as well.”
Landry continued, “This is going to be a continual unfolding of one of the biggest collusions between the government and Big Tech to again censor America’s speech.”
“Our founders knew that in order to create a free society, to really have a free nation under which people are free, they had to be able to speak their piece. And they had to be able to do so in the public square, without the interference of government telling them what they could or could not say, or what they could or could not hear.”
Consequently, Landry stated, his is one of the most significant First Amendment cases in modern times.
Fauci’s Defense
As part of its reporting, The Epoch Times reached out to Fauci, asking for his response to Landry’s claims about his inability to recall key details. The Epoch Times also asked if Fauci would like to say anything in his defense. He didn’t respond by the time of publication.
Still, Fauci has defended himself to other outlets by stating that his COVID-19 response—and any missteps he took in the beginning—were due to changing information as COVID-19 progressed.
In an interview that aired on ABC News, Fauci stated about the criticism he’s received, “It got political very, very quickly.
“Because we had the misfortune of an outbreak, and a double misfortune of an outbreak in a divided society, and the triple misfortune of a divided society in an election year. I mean, you couldn’t get more—getting the cards stacked against you, than right there. It was a triple whammy.”
Of his decisions during COVID-19 and if he had it to do over, Fauci said, “If I had to do it over again, I would have analyzed it a little bit better.”
Source:The Epoch Times
