Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said that the former chief medical adviser to the president, Dr.  Anthony Fauci, should face criminal charges for “lying under oath” to Congress about the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Cruz made his arguments at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland. “There has been no person who has done more to destroy trust in the scientific and medical community than Dr. Anthony Fauci who told millions of Americans lies willingly, knowingly, glibly, supremely arrogantly,” Cruz said.

Cruz’s arguments came just days after the Department of Energy (DOE) concluded with “low confidence” that Covid-19 most likely came from a lab in Wuhan, China. On Tuesday FBI Director Christopher Wray reiterated that his agency agreed with the Department of Energy’s conclusion, albeit still with “low confidence.”

Other intelligence agencies are either undecided or believe that the previously accepted story, that Covid-19 came from human to animal transmission, is most likely.

In April 2020, Fauci did claim that the “lab leak” theory was “a shiny object that will go away soon.” He later claimed that it was “molecularly impossible” that the viruses being worked on in the Wuhan lab could have evolved into the pathogen that led to the pandemic. When grilled by Republicans in Congress over “lab leak theory,” Fauci said that their language had “a distinct anti-science flavor.”

When confronted last week with the DOE’s decision to identify “lab leak” as the most probable Covid-19 origin story, however, Fauci urged Americans to keep “an open mind” and that “we may never know” the pandemic’s origin.

While the DOE surely embarrassed Fauci, there is no proof as of now that he had any prior knowledge of any evidence supporting the theory that Covid-19 originated from a lab.

In 2021, the Biden administration ordered an “independent investigation” into the origin of the pandemic. Different federal agencies have reached distinct conclusions with varying levels of certainty.

“We have a majority in the House, and I am confident that we’re going to use that majority and use it to hold Dr. Fauci and the others who lied accountable,” Cruz said to the CPAC audience.

At least seven million people worldwide have died due to Covid-19, and the long-term health effects for survivors will not be fully understood for many years.

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