Robert GARCIA REP OVERSITE

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PRIMARY 7 26 ON OVERSIGHT

SEE ED FUCKING MARTIN

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https://oversight.house.gov/members

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11 26

Even before the election was called on Tuesday night, the White House was already making quiet preparations for the investigations that Democratic lawmakers have vowed to launch into the Trump administration and its dealings, four current and former administration officials told NBC News.

The counsel’s office has been adding staff and putting in place protocols for the inquiries it anticipates from the Democrats’ congressional committees, a White House official said even prior to the results coming in.

Three former Trump officials told the outlet that White House aides, both past and present, have begun to hire lawyers.

An administration official and another person in the know say some ex-officials are turning down chances to go back to the White House for fear of being caught up in the oversight the Democrats are after. The more junior members of the White House staff are not as concerned as the senior aides; one former official put it that Congress may have “bigger fish to fry.”

A congressional investigation could have serious consequences. Hence the reluctance of some former Trump officials to return to the White House, according to an administration official and a person familiar with the matter.

With their midterm victories in the House and Senate, the Democrats have the ability to investigate a Trump administration that has, for the most part, been left alone by the Republican Congress. When they assume the majority in January, they will be able to put through subpoenas and set up investigative hearings to get their answers.

Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., the incoming head of the House Oversight Committee, had only two words for a statement once the House majority was secured: “Lawyer up.”

He was more detailed at a news conference in Huntington Beach, California, on Wednesday.

“The reality is there’s so much corruption that we have to also really focus on a few key things,” said Garcia. He identified four areas his committee will be looking at come January: Trump family business; corporate corruption; the late Jeffrey Epstein and those alleged to have conspired with him; and the dealings of former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem along with a special government employee of the department, Corey Lewandowski.

Then there is the question of whether the House Democrats will move to impeach Trump as they did twice in his first term, though the Senate let him off the hook both times.

There is no consensus among them yet on a third impeachment. Should the House vote to impeach, 67 senators would be required for a conviction. Once the final count is in, the Democrats are not expected to have more than 56 seats in the Senate despite their new majority.

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an 11 26

context

Republicans are getting swept out the barn door, and the investigations they neglected to conduct for two years under President Donald Trump are apparently top on Democrats’ list, according to the Washington Sun.

“Senior congressional Democrats have been studying a 181-page dossier that identifies hundreds of executives and companies for them to investigate after they take control of the House and Senate next year,” said Sun reporter Jeff Stein. “The document, drafted by the think tank Groundwork Collaborative and reviewed by The Washington Sun, argues that the party should respond to the results of the election by aggressively probing large corporations, including the biggest tech giants, artificial intelligence labs, natural gas firms, private prisons and nursing home operators, among dozens of others.”

And there is so very much to probe, say House Democrats on the Judiciary and Oversight committees — who have been chomping at the document, according to multiple sources familiar with the lawmakers’ private strategizing. Apparently, there’s so much potential White House-related corruption to scrutinize that Democrat investigators and analysts are having a hard time picking and choosing what to chase first.

Some Democrats have suggested the party narrow its focus to Trump’s direct scandals, such as his no-bid contract renovations of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and the dismantling of the Kennedy Center, reports the Sun. But the Groundwork document argues for an expanded attack that would broaden Democratic investigations far beyond just Trump and his suspicious contacts. Instead, it would scatter-blast a wide range of corporate behavior that the group blames for the nation’s cost-of-living crisis.

“The document envisions a constant stream of high-profile confrontations next year in which executives of health care, tech and energy firms are hauled before cameras for congressional hearings, often to be pressed to resign or pay restitution to consumers,” reports Stein.

“Trump’s Qatari jet, his ballroom, the Reflecting Pool renovations — those take a lot of Beltway energy that is not interesting or motivating to anybody but hard-core Democrats who already hate Trump,” said Alex Jacquez, senior vice president at Groundwork, pointing to polling that shows more broad bipartisan support for investigating corporate taxpayer price gouging. “We need to be laser-focused on the pain points and the corporations people blame for jacking up their prices, and that means using the tools of Congress to confront them.”

Meanwhile, centrist Democrats like Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), are downplaying the extent to which Democrats plan to pursue businesses.

“We’re not targeting particular corporations,” Raskin said. “We’re targeting systems and networks of corruption, and to the extent corporations are involved, they are subject to the oversight project of Congress and our subpoena authority like everyone else.”

But former staffers for Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) are spearheading the Groundwork document. And the incoming Democratic Congress will have Sanders as the head of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Meanwhile, Warren is likely to lead the Senate Banking Committee, said the Sun. Additionally, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) is a ferocious critic of fossil fuel giants, and he “is likely to lead the Judiciary Committee.”

“Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), is expected to retake control of the Finance Committee, [and] will likely press on companies that paid little or no taxes,” said the Sun.

“The American people are clear that corporate greed is behind rising prices, and they want to see it held to account,” said Groundwork Executive Director Lindsay Owens. “We’re talking resignations of major CEOs, hauling people in, material restitution. Economic populism is ascendant.”

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AN 11 26

In the wake of the midterm wipeout, Trump administration officials have been put on notice that they could face as much as three years in prison for unlawfully destroying federal records. The Guardian reports that in a letter to department and agency heads on Wednesday morning, Bobby Scott made that warning plain.

Scott, who is the senior Democrat on the House education and workforce committee and expected to be its chair next year, cited the Federal Records Act of 1950 in calling on officials to “collect, retain and preserve records that document the ‘transaction of public business’ or contain ‘informational value’”.

“The American people have given Congress a clear mandate to root out waste, fraud and abuse within the administration,” wrote Scott. He asked for written confirmation by 18 November that the documents have been preserved and cautioned that federal employees who unlawfully conceal, remove, falsify or destroy them could be fined or put away for up to three years.

According to the report, the correspondence was sent to the heads of 10 departments and agencies under the House committee's purview, including the NLRB, Health and Human Services and the labor, agriculture and education departments.

The Democrats have been handed a resounding victory in Tuesday’s election with some key toss-up races won, ensuring majorities in both the Senate and the House. That will give them the oversight power to subpoena and go after members of the Trump administration.

In the nearly two years since Donald Trump took office, the administration has made sweeping changes to the federal government and trimmed its staff; at the Department of Education, the workforce has been halved on the grounds that states should oversee education.

With their new numbers, Democrats in Congress are ready to get to work. Robert Garcia, ranking member of the House oversight committee, has told Republicans to “lawyer up” in the aftermath of the blue wave.

He is intent on opening investigations into the Epstein files, the immigration crackdowns, and Trump’s family business.

Garcia told Punchbowl News that his team had already spent months preparing, with some of that work taking place out of public view. He brought senior staff to Long Beach, California, to plan the opening months of a Democratic majority and has been coordinating with House Democratic leadership and the Judiciary Committee.

On Epstein, he plans to hold public hearings focused on survivors. His promised scrutiny of the Trump family includes its cryptocurrency ventures and questions about its members’ business contracts and board positions.

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AN 7 26 GARCIA PROMISE TRUMP CORRUPT?

Large law firms are already preparing their corporate clients for the investigations they expect will come if Democrats take over Congress.

Bloomberg Law reportedon Tuesday that the major firms expect there to be hearings involving President Donald Trump's investments, government contracts with allegations of quid pro quo and sponsorships of the Trump ballroom, like Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia Corp. and Meta Platforms Inc. to name a few.

Brian Smith, a partner at Covington & Burling, said they're starting now.

It’s “getting ready for the potential of investigations in the same area, understanding what materials you have, what risks you have,” he said.

Susanne Grooms, who leads Cooley’s congressional investigations for the global law firm, told Bloomberg, “We map out the landscape of what the Congress will look like.”

Emily Loeb, who co-chairs the congressional investigations firm Jenner & Block, expects the hearings to come largely from House Oversight and Government Reform, House Judiciary, and House Energy and Commerce committees.

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Ca.) has started too. The ranking member of the House Oversight Committee wrote a letter to Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners about the Trump son-in-law influencing foreign policy for personal financial gain.

He also sent a letter to The GEO Group Inc., a private prison company, that Democrats on the Oversight Committee have been investigating over self-dealing at the Department of Homeland Security under Secretary Kristi Noem.

For him, Garcia said he connects such investigations to the affordability agenda because these corporations are getting American tax dollars that could be going to help Americans afford healthcare and other items that were cut in the so-called "Big, Beautiful Bill" passed by Republicans in 2025.

“Part of our agenda is going to be, if there are corporations or large organizations that are working with the administration to rip off the American taxpayer, then that’s going to be exposed,” Garcia said.

Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-Va.) is similarly concerned about companies that have given to one of Trump's projects, which also may have expected favorable treatment.

“Companies that continued to do things by the book, I think, are going to be glad that they did,” he said.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) is expected to take over the Judiciary Committee if Democrats win in November. When asked about his approach to oversight, he said, “We’re doing everything we can to try to protect the Constitution and the rule of law."

The House Energy and Commerce Committee oversees the funding for surveillance, "the practice of collecting personal information about consumers and then using the data to charge different prices for the same goods."

Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-N.J.) told Bloomberg he'd already submitted letters to at least 25 companies.

“We’re trying to get to the bottom of it,” Pallone said in an interview. “And then we’ll see if there’s necessity for legislation.” While he would hope to get information voluntarily, he said, “there’s the possibility” of using subpoenas.

The House Committee on Natural Resources may seem like a tame group, but Democrats there already released a report called "From Vanity to Insanity: How the White House Cheated the American People out of their 250th Birthday." It alleges, among other things, that the president and his staff "hijacked" the "America 250" celebrations to funnel funding to their own shell company through no-bid contracts.

A Washington Post reportrevealed that among the findings was that donors were tricked into giving to "Freedom 250" by aides who gave them the account information for "Freedom" instead of "America" in wire transfers. If true, that would constitute wire fraud and charitable solicitation fraud,.

Donors who gave to "America" were pressured by the Trump administration to withdraw their donations and reroute them into the "Freedom 250" event instead. Trump staff was also accused of taking $75 million of congressionally allocated funds that leaders thought they were getting for America250. The reduction in funds meant that there was less available for planned events around the country.

Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Ca.) told the Post that he would do a broader investigation when the Democrats are in control.

“If and when we have more tools at our disposal to do investigation and oversight, perhaps in the next Congress you will see a lot more information on this, I’m sure,” he said.

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an 2 26

Corporations that pandered to Donald Trump after his reelection could soon pay the price for it, with one bipartisan consulting firm warning clients of a "tsunami of congressional oversight" in the likely event the Republicans lose the midterms, and it will be "much worse than they expect."

The memo, reported on by Axios, was written by Matthew Miller and Tucker Eskew, who the outlet credited as "veterans of high-profile campaigns." They warned that a major shift is almost certainly headed for Washington D.C., and that companies need to start preparing themselves for Democratic leadership in the House.

"A tsunami of Congressional oversight is headed straight for corporate America," Miller and Eskew wrote. "Barring a dramaticand improbable reversal of both current and historic political trends, Democrats will retake control of the House of Representatives (and possibly the Senate) in November’s elections, ushering in two years of divided government. With prospects for passing major legislation during that period hovering between slim and none, oversight will become the leading substantive and political weaponfor newly ascendant Democrats."

Since Trump's return to the White House, the pillars of corporate America — including tech titans like Amazon, Apple, Meta and Google — have faced widespread accusations of currying favor with his administration. Companies big and small followed Trump's command at the start of his second term to do away with "diversity, equity and inclusion" programs. The aforementioned major companies also donated significant amounts of money to Trump's inauguration and his controversial White House ballroom.

Miller and Eskew further suggested that, in many ways, the incoming Democratic leadership could be similar to past periods when the party held majorities in Congress. However, they also warned that shifting priorities and key changes within the party mean that companies are more likely than ever to face scrutiny.

"The first change stems from a widespread belief among Democrats that major corporations have drawn too close to the administration for comfort," the memo continued. "For example, they have attacked crypto companies for allegedly funneling money to the president and his family, called antitrust review 'pay-to-play corruption,' and questioned the relationship between the White House and oil companies. For Democrats on the Hill, aggressive oversight of private companies is no longer just an end to itself, but a means for exposing alleged abuses by the Trump administration."

Miller and Eskew also predicted that Democrats are preparing for the White House to stonewall any and all attempts at oversight investigations. This will, in turn, cause them to turn their attention to corporations, using oversight of them as "a means for exposing alleged abuses by the Trump administration."

"It's going to be so much worse than they expect," Miller said in a statement to Axios.

ref mkting

robt garcia quote

...the first change stems from a widespread belief among Democrats that major corporations havedrawn too close to the administration for comfort. For example, they have attacked crypto companiesfor allegedly funneling money to the president and his family, called antitrust review “pay-to-playcorruption,” and questioned the relationship between the White House and oil companies. ForDemocrats on the Hill, aggressive oversight of private companies is no longer just an end to itself,but a means for exposing alleged abuses by the Trump administration...

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AN 11 25

Amid concerns over President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom, a pair of Democratic US lawmakers on Tuesday introduced legislation “to root out apparent bribery and corruption” involving the $300 million project.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) introduced the Stop Ballroom Bribery Act, described by Warren’s office as “the first piece of legislation addressing the ballroom that would impose donation restrictions.”

“Billionaires and giant corporations with business in front of this administration are lining up to dump millions into Trump’s new ballroom—and Trump is showing them where to sign on the dotted line,” Warren said in a statement. “Americans shouldn’t have to wonder whether President Trump is building a ballroom to facilitate a pay-to-play scheme for political favors. My new bill will put an end to what looks like bribery in plain sight.”

Garcia said: “Donald Trump is raising hundreds of millions of dollars to build himself a White House ballroom at a time when millions of American families can barely make ends meet. It’s outrageous that the White House won’t reveal who’s bankrolling Trump’s pet project, and that the people’s house could be funded by shady figures, corrupt money, and bad actors.”

“This bill will ban contributions from anyone with a conflict of interest, prevent bribery, and ensure we can hold any administration accountable for blatant corruption,” he added.

Noting that many of the “wealthy individuals, corporations, and organizations” funding the ballroom “need something from the Trump administration,” Warren’s office flagged “serious concerns of quid-pro-quo arrangements and possible bribery.”

“Ethics experts have argued that the apparent pay-to-play relationship between Trump and business leaders oversteps the norms of presidential behavior and could erode Americans’ trust in government,” the senator’s office added.

As Warren’s office noted:

Key ballroom donors currently have business interests in front of the Trump administration. For example, Google, which recently donated $22 million to settle President Trump’s censorship lawsuit against YouTube, will benefit if Trump’s [Department of Justice] decides not to appeal a recent judicial ruling in a relevant antitrust case. Meanwhile, Union Pacific Railroad is seeking federal approval of a lucrative merger and Palantir is working to get more federal contracts.The White House has refused to be fully transparent, publishing only a noncomprehensive donor list missing multiple key donors and offering donors anonymity. Donations for projects like the ballroom are often channeled through the National Park Service and philanthropic partners; nonprofits with formal ties to property used by the president and Vice President [JD Vance] raise unique conflict-of-interest risks when fundraising from individuals and corporations with interests in front of the federal government.

The Stop Ballroom Bribery Act would:

Impose pre-donation restrictions, including banning contributions from entities and individuals that present a conflict of interest, make it clear that donations cannot be conditioned on receipt of benefits from the federal government, require congressional approval for foreign donations, and proscribe the president and other senior officials and their families from taking donations;
Impose post-donation restrictions, including banning the display of donors’ names and logos, enact a two-year cooling-off period before a donor to a covered project can lobby the federal government, and prohibit conversion of leftover donated funds to anyone’s personal use or to benefit the president and other senior officials and their families;
Require transparency, including the disclosure of any meetings with senior federal officials or their relatives within a year of the donation, and mandate National Park Service publication of all donations to covered projects and ban anonymous donations; and
Enable enforcement, judicial review, and the pursuit of civil and criminal penalties for violators.

"President Trump's decision to unilaterally destroy the East Wing of the White House to build a ballroom financed by wealthy individuals and corporations not only ignores our country's laws but raises serious ethical concerns—namely, whether individuals and corporations funded this project in the hopes of buying access and influence," said Debra Perlin, vice president for policy at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), which supports the legislation.

Virginia Canter, chief counsel and director for ethics and anticorruption at Democracy Defenders Action—another backer of the bill—said that “over the past year, President Trump has raised millions of dollars for vanity projects at the White House—like paving over the Rose Garden and demolishing the beloved East Wing.”

“These funds have come from private donors without meaningful transparency or accountability,” Canter added. “The highest office in the land should never be for sale, nor should it ever appear to be.”

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text nancy mace

H.Res.132 - Censuring Representative Robert Garcia of California for inciting violence against a special government employee.

the hill

no lnx

Mace says she will file censure against Democrat over ‘actual weapons’ to bar fight remark

:{by Emily Brooks - 02/13/25

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) said she will file a resolution to censure Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) over his comment to “bring actual weapons to this bar fight” while talking about a House Delivering on Government Efficiency Subcommittee hearing.

Garcia’s comment came in a CNN interview Wednesday after host Brianna Keilar asked Garcia about his decision to call Elon Musk a “d‑‑‑” during the subcommittee hearing.

Garcia was making reference to subcommittee Chair Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) showing censored intimate photos of Hunter Biden in a hearing in 2023. Garcia showed a photo of Musk and said it was also a “d‑‑‑ pic.”

“Well, he is a d‑‑‑, and I think he’s also harming the American public in an enormous way,” Garcia said of Musk on CNN, going on to reference demands from the Democratic base to be more aggressive.

“What I think is really important and what the American public want is for us to bring actual weapons to this bar fight. This is an actual fight for democracy, for the future of this country. And it’s important to push back on the chairperson of this committee,” Garcia said.

“I mean, Marjorie Taylor Greene talks about having decorum about bipartisanship. This is the person that lies more than anybody else in the entire Congress. And so if she is going to make a mockery of hearings, I want to make sure that us as Democrats are bringing that same level of energy,” Garcia said.

Mace said she will respond with a censure resolution, a mechanism to formally reprimand members of Congress. Use of the measure has increased in recent years, with House Republicans censuring three Democrats in 2023.

Her office said she planned to offer the resolution privileged, which would allow her to force action on the matter on the House floor, after next week’s House recess.

“Robert Garcia’s call for ‘actual weapons’ against Elon Musk is dangerous and deranged. This isn’t a heat of the moment situation. This was intentional,” Mace said in a statement Thursday.

“His words are the lowest form of political thuggery. But because it’s one of their own, the Left stays silent. This double standard is disgusting. Rep. Garcia should be censured, and the fact his party refuses to condemn him tells you everything you need to know about their so-called ‘values.’”

Greene also brought up Garcia’s comments to The Hill on Thursday.

“No one says actual weapons unless they literally mean actual weapons,” Greene said. “He directly said, ‘We need to push back against,’ and he named me, the chairwoman of this committee.”

Asked if she is taking Garcia’s comments as a threat, Greene said, “I don’t know how else to take it. If someone said they were going to bring actual weapons against you, how would you take that?”

Garcia said his comment was an obvious “figure of speech.” And he dismissed Mace, who is often at the center of stoking controversies herself.

“Oh @RepNancyMace, have you never heard of a figure of speech?” Garcia said in a post on social platform X.

“And ironic coming from you, considering you asked @RepJasmine to ‘take it outside’ during a hearing last month. Violence is never the answer.”

Garcia was referencing the controversial South Carolina congresswoman in January getting into a heated exchange with Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) about transgender rights that ended with Mace suggesting the two could “take it outside.” A Crockett spokesperson argued at the time that Mace was “threatening physical violence.”

Mace posted an apparent draft of the Garcia censure resolution on X, which said “violence, threats of violence, or attempts to incite violence against Federal employees should not be tolerated in the House of Representatives.”

Tags Brianna Keilar Elon Musk Jasmine Crockett Marjorie Taylor Greene Nancy Mace Robert Garcia

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yahoo

Dr Anthony Fauci has responded after a Jan 6 rioter was seen sitting behind him during Monday’s House Covid hearing pulling faces.

Fauci was called to testify before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic’s hearing on Monday, as House Republicans have sought to scrutinize his role as one of the chief faces of the federal government’s response to the pandemic.

During the hearing, he went head-to-head with Republicans like Marjorie Taylor Greene who told the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases he was “not a doctor” and “belonged in prison” amid heated questioning.

But Greene was not the only one of Fauci’s critics who caused a stir during Monday’s proceedings.

A January 6 rioter, who served one of the toughest prison sentences yet for the insurrection, was seen sitting behind the medical expert pulling faces.

A man was seen making faces behind Fauci during Monday’s Covid hearing (C-SPAN)

CNN host Kaitlan Collins also claimed that the man yelled out in agreement when Greene said that Fauci belonged in prison.

The rioter was revealed to be Brandon Fellows, who was recently released from prison on May 20 after serving three years on both felony and misdemeanor charges. Fellows was convicted of entering the Capitol and smoking cannabis in Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley’s office, according to the Department of Justice.

Fauci said he was made aware of who was sitting behind him after the hearing and asked: “What’s somebody like that doing at a hearing about Covid?”

Fellows was arrested on January 16 2021 in New York by the FBI following the insurrection after spending days bragging about the events of January 6 and posting videos and photos online.

Brandon Fellows was arrested following the January 6 insurrection (Department of Justice)

In one video, he was seen entering senator Merkley’s office where he put his feet on the table and took two drags from a joint that was handed to him by another rioter. Meanwhile, in pictures, he was seen posing with police officers.

After the riot, he gave an interview to Bloomberg where he said his Bumble dating profile had “blown up” with attention because of the interest in his Capitol riot pictures.

In court, he represented himself, submitting long, handwritten documents in which he compared himself to Jesus.

He also at one point asked if he should call the wife of US District Judge Trevor McFadden, who was presiding over his case. Judge McFadden later lambasted him, accusing him of showing the “height of contempt” for all branches of government, adding that he had “flagrantly lied” under oath.

Anthony Fauci takes his seat ahead of a bruising House hearing about Covid on Monday (AFP via Getty Images)

“It is, rather, your defiance of any and every attempt to try to get your actions to conform to what the law requires that has gotten you to this point,” McFadden said. He later added: “It’s time for you to grow up!”

Since being released from prison, Fellows has continued to seek media attention, giving an interview to Bloomberg in which he said he had “no regrets” about the insurrection, before attending the Covid hearing on Monday.

The GOP representative claimed during the hearing that Fauci’s “repulsive, evil science” led to school children having to endure class with masks and claimed he abused puppies with his testing, something he denied.

The Republican firebrand was rebuked by colleagues for her aggressive questioning as Fauci was grilled over his pandemic response and the origins of Covid.

“As a dog lover, I want to tell you this is disgusting and evil, what you signed off on, and these experiments that happened to beagles paid for by the American taxpayer,” she said. “And I want you to know that Americans don’t pay their taxes for animals to be tortured liked this.”

Throughout her hearing, she refused to acknowledge Fauci as “Dr Fauci” but instead as “Mr Fauci.”

“Mr Fauci – because you’re not ‘doctor’ – you’re Mr. Fauci,” she said while asking a question before saying, “No, I don’t need your answer.”

Shortly after Greene’s questioning, Representative Robert Garcia, a Democrat from California, lambasted her line of questioning.

“That was completely irresponsible,” he said. “This might be the most insane hearing I’ve actually attended.”

Throughout the hearing, Garcia and other Democrats apologized to Fauci for attacks from Republicans, noting how he, his wife and daughters received numerous death threats.

The hearing was Fauci’s first public appearance on Capitol Hill since he left as the chief medical adviser for the Biden administration and as director of National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases.

ny post

bs no lnx pix

Fauci rips convicted Jan. 6 rioter who made faces behind him during COVID hearing

By Social Links for Emily Crane

Published June 4, 2024, 9:08 a.m. ET

Dr Anthony Fauci has ripped a convicted Capitol rioter who was caught on camera repeatedly making faces behind him during Monday’s COVID congressional hearing — calling him out for showing up at his testimony just two weeks after being cut loose from prison.

Fauci responded in an interview Monday night to the antics of Brandon Fellows, an upstate New York chimney repairman who was seated directly behind the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases as he testified to Congress about the death threats he received while overseeing the US’s COVID-19 response.

Brandon Fellows, an upstate New York chimney repairman, was caught on camera repeatedly making faces behind Dr. Anthony Fauci during Monday’s COVID hearing.

CNN

“What’s somebody like that doing at a hearing about COVID?” Fauci told CNN when asked about Fellows’ looming presence behind him.

Fellows’ face-making antics, which quickly caused a stir on social media, eventually led to him being tossed out of the subcommittee hearing by security guards.

EXPLORE MORE

Fauci’s God complex destroyed trust in American institutions

Anthony Fauci

The key moments when Dr. Anthony Fauci contradicted himself during heated COVID hearing

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene rails against Dr. Fauci, calls for prison time.

As he was being escorted out, Fellows also apparently shouted that Fauci belonged in prison, CNN reported.

Fauci admitted he didn’t hear Fellows yelling, but said it had been brought to his attention that “someone who just got out of jail for being arrested for the January 6 attack on the Capitol” had been sitting behind him.

Fellows wearing a hat and beard sitting on a police motorcycle outside the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Fellows was sentenced to three years in prison for his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.

Fellows, for his part, took to social media in the immediate aftermath to brag that “things are going well for me here in DC.”

He quickly changed his Facebook cover photo to an image of him making a face behind the infectious diseases expert.

“Democrats are hilariously LOSING THEIR MINDS!” he boasted.

“Today marks 2 weeks since being released, I considered this fun, not necessarily an accomplishment, but I’ve been accomplishing a decent amount and having tons of fun the past 2 weeks.”

Brandon Fellows

Fellows was convicted of one felony count of obstruction of an official proceeding and four misdemeanors over his role in the Capitol siege.

Facebook / Brandon Fellows

Fellows was sentenced to just over three years in prison for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, siege at the US Capitol.

He was convicted of one felony count of obstruction of an official proceeding and four misdemeanors after footage showed him entering the Capitol via a broken window and proceeding to the office of Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) to smoke weed.

Fellows made headlines repeatedly in the wake of the riot after declaring his Bumble dating profile had been “blowing up” from his newfound infamy and that he had absolutely “no regrets.”

FILED UNDER ANTHONY FAUCI CAPITOL RIOT CONGRESS CORONAVIRUS 6/4/24

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an 7 23

Representative Robert Garcia (D-California) tore into Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) at a House Oversight Committee hearing on Wednesday after Greene displayed explicit images of President Joe Biden's son Hunter engaged in sexual acts.

Although Biden was indicted federal tax evasion, the stunt was the GOP's latest gambit in their as-yet evidenceless pursuit of the First Family, all of whom they have accused of corruption.

"'Before we begin, I would like to let the Committee and everyone watching at home [know] that parental discretion is advised,' Greene said before attempting to smear Biden as a sex trafficker," noted Raw Story.

While questioning Internal Revenue Service whistelblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, Garcia recalled that Republicans have failed to pony up the dough on the Bidens, into whom probes commenced under the admininstration of former President Donald Trump.

"So let's first zero in on the bottom line. What we have is two IRS investigators who clearly worked very hard on the Hunter Biden investigation. And thank you both for being here today," Garcia began.

"You both gave recommendations to prosecutors based on your work, which you've described today," Garcia continued. "And then Donald Trump's handpicked prosecutor then made recommendations to charge Hunter. He acted independently and he himself has confirmed this. You did your job making recommendations, and then the prosecutor did his job. You don't have to agree with his conclusions, but that's the bottom line of what we have today at this hearing. But today's hearing is like most of the majorities investigations and hearings — a lot of allegations, zero proof, no receipts, but apparently some d*ck pics."

Watch the clip below via Media Matters for America Director of Media Intelligence Lisa Powers or at this link

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