One of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s lawyers was removed from a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing Tuesday morning after failing to remain silent despite Sen. Rand Paul‘s (R-KY) refusal to recognize him.
Paul, the committee chairman, had the lawyer removed after a back-and-forth between the two after the lawyer interrupted during questioning about Fauci’s role in COVID-19 pandemic policy. The room erupted in applause while security personnel walked him out.
“You were told not to sit at the table, you insist on sitting at the table, and we told you you would not be recognized,” Paul told the lawyer. “You are not invited here for testimony, sir. You are being disruptive. Would you behave this way in a courtroom? No, because the judge would put you in jail. I can’t do that today, but I can have you escorted from the premises.”
A spokesperson for the committee told the Washington Examiner that the attorney removed from the room was Dave Schertler
Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), the ranking member, then stepped in, “Mr. Chairman, I’d like to hear what the attorney has to say.”
Paul denied Peters’s request.
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“This is not a game with his lawyers,” the chairman continued. “He can advise his lawyers can give him advice. He’s got a half-dozen here. They are all allowed to talk to him.”
Fauci said in his opening testimony that he was invoking his Fifth Amendment right because the hearing was called by Paul to get him “to say something, anything that could vindicate his repeated public pledges” to see him in prison.