'Retirement is not going to save' Fauci from accountability for COVID censorship: Louisiana AG

Anthony Fauci moved up his planned retirement from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases by at least two years after a federal judge authorized a subpoena against him in the social media censorship lawsuit by Republican attorneys general.

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry doesn't think that's a coincidence, but it won't change his approach in the First Amendment challenge with Missouri AG Eric Schmitt and censored doctors.

"I think that this is one of the most important cases that I believe eventually will make it up to the Supreme Court in over 100 years," Landry told the John Solomon Reports podcast Tuesday. "And it should scare the bejesus out of every American citizen."

"I can promise you retirement is not going to save [Fauci] from us," he said. "I want to know everything that Dr. Fauci hid from the American people," such as "all the therapeuticals [sic] that might have been hidden that could have saved people's lives."

Multiple lawsuits have revealed sprawling coordination on censorship decisions between Big Tech companies and 50-plus officials in at least a dozen federal agencies or components, including claims related to COVID vaccines and alternative treatments. The FDA, which approved ivermectin in 1998, misled the public about its use in humans last year, implying it was only prescribed for horses.

"I mean, how many people may have died unnecessarily?" Landry asked rhetorically. "Because Anthony Fauci decided that something was misinformation?"

Last week, U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty overruled Justice Department objections to Fauci answering "interrogatories" in the AGs' lawsuit in his capacity as White House chief medical adviser, giving him 21 days to answer.

"I can't wait to uncover that treasure chest," Landry said, noting that Fauci changed his mind about waiting until President Biden left office to retire after receiving a subpoena. The 38-year NIAID director and face of federal COVID policy said Aug. 22 he'll step down at year's end.

Referring to former White House coronavirus coordinator Deborah Birx's recent admission that she "knew" vaccines "were not going to protect against infection," Landry said "people like [Birx] and them should lose their licenses ... their pensions. I mean, think about that. I mean, what is the penalty for lying to the American people? And then admitting it?"

He hopes the litigation will force tech platforms "to put out everything that they censored" in a "catalog searchable format" that is "literally pushed out to the American people, so that they have an opportunity to see what their government tried to hide from them." Others should file their own First Amendment lawsuits against the feds based on what they find, he added.

Having served a year in Congress, "nothing in Washington, D.C. surprises me" about the administrative state, Landry said. "We've allowed the federal government to grow into a behemoth that just is all-encompassing ... no particular limits to where they can go."

It's "incumbent upon Congress to start reining in these agencies," he said. "They've got way too much discretion. They've got way too much authority." It won't require new laws, he emphasized, saying, "I just think we need to uphold the First Amendment."

"I think the penalty should be defunding, downsizing, scaling back" and holding officials like Fauci accountable, "whether it's civil, or whether they engage in any criminal conduct" through fraud or "financial gain ... by keeping this information from the American people," Landry said. 

The attorney general took a victory lap for the success of the litigation thus far. "They laughed at us" for suing the feds for allegedly pressuring social media platforms to take down claims about COVID, election security and Hunter Biden's laptop and setting up a Disinformation Governance Board in the Department of Homeland Security.

"Now, how do you square an agency called the Disinformation Board and the First Amendment to the Bill of Rights?" Landy asked. Once Judge Doughty approved discovery and subpoenas, "the proverbial you-know-what hit the fan."

The plaintiffs went back to court last week to seek additional subpoenas to the Justice Department and FBI, Landry said, based on Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's admission on Joe Rogan's podcast that Facebook throttled the Hunter Biden laptop story because the FBI told it to be on "high alert" for Russian propaganda ahead of the 2020 election.

"Can't wait to see what they have to say on the stand," he said. "The DOJ is going to claim some sort of privilege or executive privilege, but my response to them is, you don't get a privilege for violating someone's constitutional rights."

Landry was asked about speculation that "Team Landry" is gearing up for him to run for Louisiana governor. "[T]he one thing I've learned is, is that we fix our country, not in Washington, D.C.; we fix our country when we fix our states," he replied.