A man suspected of intentionally setting the fire that devastated a 173-year-old Brooklyn church was arrested early Wednesday morning after allegedly attempting to shoplift food from a Times Square CVS, according to police.

John Jones, 24, was taken into custody at approximately 1:39 a.m. by an off-duty NYPD officer working private security at the CVS at West 49th Street and Broadway after he allegedly tried to steal a sandwich and a Coca-Cola.

‘Now we understand it is intentional, which brings another layer of grief to myself, as well as the congregation and the community.’

While Jones was being processed on the petty larceny charge, officers discovered there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest in connection with the June fire that destroyed the historic South Bushwick Reformed Church.

Jones is charged with federal arson in connection to the blaze.

Investigators had been searching for Jones after surveillance footage allegedly captured him fleeing the area of South Bushwick Reformed Church shortly before flames erupted around 1:20 p.m. on June 19.

The three-alarm fire drew nearly 200 first responders and caused catastrophic damage to the landmarked church, including the collapse of its iconic steeple into the roof. The church was empty at the time, with only one firefighter suffering minor injuries.

RELATED: Fire that destroyed one of NYC’s oldest wooden churches was intentionally set, FDNY determines

South Bushwick Reformed Church, 1923.Eugene L. Armbruster/The New York Historical Society/Getty Images

Last month, the FDNY officially determined the fire to be incendiary, meaning it had been deliberately set, though the investigation remained ongoing.

“Now we understand it is intentional, which brings another layer of grief to myself, as well as the congregation and the community,” Pastor James E. Steward II previously told CBS News.

South Bushwick Reformed Church was built in 1853 and declared a city landmark by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1968. It was one of only eight surviving wooden landmarked houses of worship in the entirety of New York City, with the congregation itself dating back to Dutch settlers in the 17th century.

In the weeks following the fire, church leaders and preservationists fought to save what remained of the historic structure after the Department of Buildings initially moved toward demolition.

The city ultimately granted a temporary pause to allow engineers and contractors to pursue a stabilization plan for portions of the building, including its 1881 fellowship hall.

This week, Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church donated $5,000 to aid in the recovery effort as church leaders continue evaluating whether the landmark can be rebuilt or partially restored.

“When we heard the news that South Bushwick Church had caught fire, we wanted to come from Harlem to let you know that we love you, that we care for you,” Rev. Dr. Kevin R. Johnson said. “Today we bring you a check of $5,000 on behalf of the members of the Abyssinian Baptist Church.”

Additionally, according to a criminal complaint filed by the Eastern District of New York, Jones was also arrested by NYPD on or about June 28 in connection with “a separate property destruction incident.”

The New York Post, citing sources, has since reported that Jones was accused of destroying a television at a Williamsburg restaurant, earning him a criminal mischief charge.

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​Arrest, Church, Crime, Federal charges, Fire, New york city, Surveillance footage, Politics 

Wisconsin Democrats have a new front-runner for the “most psychotic Democrat,” and BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales is sounding the alarm.

“There’s a lot of competition. I get it. But I just would like to introduce you to a new player. Her name is Francesca Hong,” Gonzales begins.

Hong is a self-described democratic socialist who is running for governor in Wisconsin. And she “could win,” Gonzales says, pointing out that she’s “taking charge at 94.3%” in the Democrat primary.

“Now, I mentioned this woman is like a crackpot psycho crazy person. The reason that I say that … because she apparently is a psycho by like the Norman Bates definition,” she adds, before playing a clip from an interview with Hong.

“I think a lot of my insecurities and my struggles with mental health really came from a sense of never really feeling like I belonged. There was a deep shame and fear that I didn’t want to be Korean, and I think that’s where a lot of the mental health struggle started,” Hong recalled.

“I deeply wanted to be American, and I felt shame that my parents sacrificed so much to be here and that wasn’t who I wanted to be,” she added.

Hong went on to explain that “isolation and loneliness led into a lot of despair and depression,” leaving her hospitalized her senior year of high school. Hong explained that she was diagnosed as bipolar.

“She’s also admitted to taking SSRIs and overdosing on lithium,” Gonzales says.

“I feel like that should be pretty disqualifying to say, ‘I should run as governor,’” she adds.

Despite formerly being a restaurant owner and chef, Hong has called tipping “racist” and also lamented serving others on holidays like Valentine’s day.

“If that wasn’t bad enough, she also hates Christmas,” Gonzales says.

In a 2019 post on X, Hong wrote: “IT bro who was working on ‘our’ computer remotely changed the background theme to snow and Christmas trees. I feel slightly attacked…”

But that’s not all, as in a now-deleted 2020 post on X, she wrote: “Cancel Thanksgiving. Should have done this in 1621. If it takes a worldwide pandemic for us to realize we should stop celebrating colonialism and the original superspreader event that killed Indegenous [sic] folx and women so be it.”

Even CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked Hong about her past take on Thanksgiving, to which Hong responded, “I always think my hospitality background in owning a restaurant … to share conversation and build community is always a good thing, but Thanksgiving is also a time that’s incredibly painful for many people in our communities.”

Hong has also posted that she supports “defunding the police as a first step towards abolishing the police.”

And shockingly, it gets worse.

“I guess she wants to get away with calling for the assassination of President Trump, because she openly called for it on a Zoom call,” Gonzales says, before playing yet another damaging clip of Hong.

“In the restaurant industry, when we’re out of something, we say it’s 86’ed. And I’d say it’s about f**king time we 86 Trump. He represents the utter failure of our government to keep us safe from threats, both viral and systemic,” Hong said.

However, there is good news.

“People seem to be waking up to how much of an actual psycho she is. So much so that Republicans are now narrowly favored to win the general. 52% Republican, 48% Democrat,” Gonzales says.

“I will just say in closing,” she adds, “candidates like Francesca Hong are tearing the Democrat Party apart.”

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

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​Francesca hong, Sara gonzales, Colonialism, Wisconsin, Election, Government, Governor, Democrat, Blazetv show 

George R.R. Martin may be one of the last surviving big-name bloggers out there, but don’t expect him to channel that energy into book writing any time soon.

For years fans have been asking the author to finish “The Winds of Winter,” the sixth “Game of Thrones” book, and after more than 15 years, the novel still isn’t finished.

‘Getting old is no fun.’

‘Worst’ to come?

In a recent blog post titled “Better Late Than Never,” Martin revealed to fans what has been holding him back.

The 77-year-old first addressed the fact that he hadn’t posted on the blog since February, citing that he “kept falling further and further behind.”

The website itself, called “Not a Blog,” is a charming time capsule from the mid-2000s, complete with basic clip art, where Martin has historically shared inside information with fans.

This time around, he admitted to readers “This year has been… stressful, to say the least.”

“So much has been happening, it’s been overwhelming. Some great things, exciting things. Dreams coming true. But there have been nightmares too,” the author continued.

Martin then expressed that he has been having trouble dealing with his emotions surrounding death, a message he has communicated with fans previously.

“I have lost friends. Battled sadness and depression. The worst may be yet to come. I turned seventy-seven last September, and I tell you, getting old is no fun. But there have been amazing times as well,” Martin continued.

RELATED: ‘BURN IT ALL DOWN’: Firebrand feminist filmmaker calls for violent revolution

Craig Barritt/Getty Images

‘Short and rushed’

Martin cited some things to celebrate, like Emmy nominations for his “Game of Thrones” prequel called “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” which garnered nine chances to win a trophy.

“I hope to attend,” Martin said about the award ceremony. “But that depends on… well, on a lot of things.”

The vague blog entry did not reveal any progress for his last book. Instead, Martin offered that he would attempt to “catch up” on his blogs, but said that his posts “are likely to short and rushed.”

Summarizing his ups and downs, the beloved writer stated, “I suppose that’s just life. Of course, I knew that. If you’ve read my stories, you know that.”

RELATED: Sam Altman biopic actors break silence after Amazon drops film: ‘I don’t know who’s running everything’

Jason Merritt/Getty Images

Bleak geek

Comments from Martin in May 2025 were similar, but much more bleak, when he declared on his blog, “I will never finish WINDS, If I do, I will never finish A DREAM OF SPRING. If I do, it won’t be any good.”

Hinting at a replacement, Martin said, “I ought to get some other writer to pinch hit for me.”

But that’s where the darkness set in, with the writer bleakly addressing fans about his age,

“… I am going to die soon anyway, because I am so old. I lost all interest in A Song of Ice and Fire decades ago. I don’t give a s**t about writing any longer, I just sit around and spend my money.”

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​George r. r. martin, Game of thrones, Entertainment 

Kaitlyn Tracey — the 33-year-old Canadian “illegal alien” who was caught on video slapping a teen girl dressed in “patriotic” clothing the day before the Fourth of July on a New Jersey boardwalk — has received her comeuppance from the U.S. government.

Tracey entered a guilty plea to misdemeanor simple assault, which was part of a deal she made after her arrest following the fracas, the Toronto Sun reported.

‘She entered the United States on April 14, 2024, on a visa set to expire on September 6, 2024. In violation of our nation’s laws, she overstayed her visa and failed to depart.’

With that, a Texas immigration judge earlier this week ordered Tracey — dubbed the “Maple Leaf Menace” by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security — deported back to Canada, the Sun added.

Tracey also was sentenced to one day in jail but was granted time served, the paper said.

DHS said a video it posted on X last month shows Tracey slapping a teenager and that “this illegal alien who assaulted a teenager has no business being in our country.”

The video in question shows a red-haired female with tattoos and wearing a black baseball hat appearing to twice slap another female on a boardwalk and then walking away with a male.

Police said: “The female suspect began yelling at the female juvenile over patriotic-colored sweatpants with political wording. The female suspect was then seen on video striking the juvenile female, once to the body and once to the face, with an open hand. The female suspect then left the scene without being identified.”

While the victim of the alleged assault seen on the video was wearing shorts, she does appear to be wearing a tank top with the numbers “250” on the front — presumably in regard to America’s 250th anniversary celebrated on July 4. The incident occurred July 3.

The following video contains a partial clip of the alleged slaps:

RELATED: Video shows Canadian ‘illegal alien’ slapping teen; assault suspect ‘has no business being in our country’: DHS

Police department detectives conducted an investigation, and police said they identified Tracey on July 6 as the suspect in connection with the incident.

Tracey was charged with simple assault, endangering the welfare of a child, harassment, and obstruction, police said, adding that Tracey early on July 6 was taken into custody without incident, processed, and transported to Ocean County Jail.

Blaze News on the morning of July 8 checked Immigration and Customs Enforcement records, which showed Tracey was in ICE custody at its Delaney Hall Detention Facility in Newark, N.J.

“She entered the United States on April 14, 2024, on a visa set to expire on September 6, 2024,” the DHS added to Blaze News. “In violation of our nation’s laws, she overstayed her visa and failed to depart.”

“Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin, ICE is targeting the worst of the worst. Nearly 70% of ICE arrests are of illegal aliens charged or convicted of a crime in the U.S.,” the DHS added to Blaze News. “Our message is clear: If you come into our country illegally and break our laws, we will find you, we will arrest you, and we will deport you.”

Fox News said a man identifying himself on social media as Tracey’s husband, Matthew Geroni, disputed the allegations in an interview with NJ.com and said the incident was “blown out of proportion.”

Fox News added that Geroni told NJ.com: “A person like Kate does not belong in any facility. My wife has never been in trouble in her entire life. She’s never had any kind of situation like this. This one little situation that was really a nothingburger when it happened has been blown so out of control by conservatives online that it has caused my wife to be put in a detention center.”

More from Fox News:

Geroni also posted several emotional videos to social media after Tracey’s arrest, saying he was trying to find an immigration attorney and pleading for help.

“I need help. I don’t know what to do,” he said in one video. “I need an immigration lawyer. … I need my wife.”

Geroni also said he created a GoFundMe campaign to help pay for Tracey’s legal defense and immigration costs before it was removed from the platform. Before it was taken down, the fundraiser said it had been organized by friends to help cover Tracey’s legal expenses and immigration-related costs.

In another video, Geroni claimed the campaign was removed after what he described as a coordinated mass reporting campaign by a “Facebook group of MAGA supporters.”

But Fox News said a GoFundMe spokesperson disputed Geroni’s claim and noted that the fundraiser was removed for violating the platform’s policies.

“GoFundMe’s terms of service prohibit fundraisers for the legal defense of violent crimes,” the spokesperson said, according to the news network. “Consistent with this long-standing policy, the fundraiser was removed from the platform and fully refunded.”

Tracey’s defense lawyer, Francis Hodgson, told Judge Guy P. Ryan that Tracey “arrived here on a passport some years ago. She met her husband and didn’t leave, but while she was [here], she maintained employment and was a productive member of society,” according to the Sun.

Hodgson added that Tracey has “taken responsibility for her role in it, and this is a reasonable judgment, Judge, that is consistent with other similar-type matters that happen every day during the summer on this boardwalk,” the paper also said.

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​Crime, Deportation, Canadian, Kaitlyn tracey, Immigration judge, Simple assault, New jersey, Illegal alien, Politics 

A 20-year-old college student is accused of destroying Flock Safety cameras in a West Virginia town, but he’s getting support from hundreds online.

Wesley Jackson allegedly damaged cameras that were installed at the intersection of Chestnut Ridge Road and Suburban Court in Morgantown, according to the Monongalia County Sheriff’s Office.

‘Can’t be. He was helping me take care of my sick mother and 8 foster children at the time.’

Investigators said they were able to identify Jackson as a suspect through other business surveillance footage, information from a nearby license plate reader, and other records obtained through search warrants.

He identified an alleged accomplice during a police interview, and that man was also later arrested.

The nationwide furor over privacy issues related to Flock cameras manifested itself in the comments on the arrest, where many defended Jackson’s alleged actions and others offered humorous alibis for the accused.

“Y’all’re confused, this fine young man was rescuing my cat from a tree at the time of the incident,” read one comment on Facebook.

“This fine gentleman was actually with me burning a couch,” said another.

“So weird, he was preparing food for the soup kitchen at that time,” another commenter said.

“We were at a convention in DC doing a seminar on the 4th amendment,” read another reply.

“Can’t be. He was helping me take care of my sick mother and 8 foster children at the time,” replied another user.

“No way he could have done it, we was fishing that day,” recalled one commenter.

Video of some the comments were posted to social media.

“I was the flock camera. this is definitely not the guy that stole me,” replied one user.

RELATED: FIVE police officers FIRED and charged after allegedly abusing Flock surveillance system

Jackson was charged with two felonies: damage, destruction, or theft of equipment used by emergency responders and conspiracy to commit a felony.

He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. He was released on a $15,000 bond.

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​Flock cameras, Privacy issues, Surveillance state, West virginia, Politics 

Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.) insists there was nothing romantic about any of it.

He even told investigators he knows exactly what sexual harassment looks like, having once written corporate policy on it. The House Ethics Committee wasn’t convinced, citing 30 pints of ice cream, strip clubs, a gifted handgun, and a poem he couldn’t get through without crying.

Edwards called her ‘the most amazing woman’ who had ‘written a complex chapter in my heart that I will never stop reading.’

The married father of two dropped his re-election bid after “much prayer and reflection,” announcing the decision early Wednesday morning.

The announcement came after a House Ethics Committee report released Monday found substantial reason to believe Edwards may have violated House rules on sexual harassment and hostile workplaces through a sustained pattern of conduct toward two young female staffers — one hired at 19, the other in her early 20s.

The 25-page report documents gifts of jewelry worth over $1,000, designer purses, a laptop, a robotic vacuum, a KitchenAid mixer, vacations, and one-on-one dinners.

RELATED: Sen. Moreno goes nuclear on ex-son-in-law Rep. Miller

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images

He reportedly skipped House votes to help decorate one staffer’s Christmas tree, booked her spa treatments, and took her to the casino, where he bought her drinks and paid for her to gamble.

According to the report, Edwards had roughly 30 types of ice cream delivered to her home. When she called that excessive, he replied, “You looked like you needed a lot of cheering up! My heart was breaking seeing you like that.”

In what appears to be a handwritten letter bearing his signature, Edwards called her “the most amazing woman” who had “written a complex chapter in my heart that I will never stop reading,” and he arranged for a singer to perform Ed Sheeran’s “The Hills of Aberfeldy” at her birthday as a message “from a special someone,” according to one of the staffers.

In his interview with the committee, Edwards reportedly said this was the staffer’s favorite song.

At her office going-away party, he read the poem aloud, crying as he did. Staffers present said they felt uncomfortable — something Edwards himself acknowledged in testimony.

The committee found the pattern especially troubling because Edwards’ voluntary message production, completed after what Edwards called a “costly and extensive search,” excluded over 400 texts with one staffer, plus a nine-month gap missing 400 more — including the ice cream photo and several texts that could be interpreted as romantic that surfaced anyway.

The panel found no evidence of sexual activity or explicit propositions, but it concluded a “reasonable observer” would read his pattern of behavior as advances and recommended the full House censure him — the first recommendation of its kind since 2010.

Edwards disputes the findings and denies impropriety, arguing the committee bypassed normal procedure and that “the report’s narrative rests, at several of its most consequential points, on inferences the record does not support, and in places affirmatively contradicts.”

Edwards said he would serve out the remainder of his current term.

The censure vote awaits the House’s return from recess on August 31.

Blaze News contacted Edwards’ office for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

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​House ethics committee, Congress, Scandal, Politics, Chuck edwards 

More revelations about the Crossfire Hurricane investigation appear to show just how far the deep state was willing to go to frame Donald Trump as a Russian asset.

The FBI officially opened the Crossfire Hurricane investigation into supposed Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election on July 31 of that year.

‘They knew what they were doing was wrong.’

The operation was a partisan frame from start to finish — launched on the basis of what federal prosecutor John Durham found to have been “raw, unanalyzed, and uncorroborated intelligence” at a time when “neither U.S. law enforcement nor the Intelligence Community appears to have possessed any actual evidence of collusion in their holdings.”

Declassified FBI documents released by the White House on Wednesday show that an investigative subcomponent of Crossfire Hurricane code-named “Oxferd Comma” involved floating the baseless notion that President Donald Trump was acting on the behalf of the Kremlin when he fired then-FBI Director James Comey in May 2017.

The FBI appears to have strategically incorporated misspellings like “Oxferd” and numerical substitutions for letters in order to counter Freedom of Information Act requests.

Trump fired Comey for his handling of the investigation into twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server for official public communications and Comey’s perceived usurpation of the attorney general’s authority on July 5, 2016, when he announced that the case would be closed without prosecution.

Another deep-state smear job

Among the newly declassified documents is a partially redacted internal memo that shows that a week after Trump fired Comey, Bill Priestap, then-assistant director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division, directed the bureau to launch a full investigation “based on an articulable factual basis that reasonably indicates that President Donald J. Trump may be or has been, wittingly or unwittingly, involved in activities for or on behalf of the Government of the Russian Federation which may constitute violations of federal criminal law or threats to the national security of the United States.”

The memo noted that the new investigation — marked as a “sensitive investigative matter” and built on the “predetermined criteria set forth by the CROSSFIRE HURRICANE investigative team” — would determine whether Trump and others obstructed or conspired to obstruct any associated FBI investigation and whether Comey’s termination was itself an instance of obstruction.

RELATED: Trump is continuing JFK’s war on communist subversion

Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images

The FBI memo quoted from an interview where Trump, discussing his decision to fire Comey, said, “This Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story, it’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won.”

According to the memo, this “can be reasonably read to imply that the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation was a factor in President Trump’s decision to terminate Comey.”

The investigation, the launch of which former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe and then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein were made aware, continued until April 2019.

Now in August 2026, the White House is highlighting previously released documents showing that this operation was launched despite the notion of Trump being a Russian asset having “already been widely dismissed by agents and analysts working for months beforehand on the Crossfire Hurricane case.”

For example, then-FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok said in a May 19, 2017, email to Lisa Page that his “gut sense” was that “there’s no big there there.”

The White House also pointed out that by the time the Oxferd Comma investigation was under way, the FBI “had also learned that the original allegations of collusion came from Hillary Clinton’s campaign, were funneled to the FBI in a dossier written by a former British spy named Christopher Steele, who was paid by Clinton campaign’s law firm, and that the Steele dossier’s contents had mostly been uncorroborated or debunked and were part of a political dirty trick.”

FBI Assistant Director Ben Williamson said in a statement to Blaze News, “The weaponization that occurred against President Trump under prior regimes was inexcusable and wholly un-American. Director [Kash] Patel himself was the lead investigator who originally exposed the disgraceful Crossfire Hurricane scandal, and as director, he has released over 40,000 pages of documents to the public exposing similar malfeasance from former FBI leadership — a threefold increase from both his predecessors combined. As we’ve said repeatedly: Any individual who is found to have acted unethically or engaged in weaponization has been or will be fired from the Bureau and held accountable under the law.”

Everything in the dark

Jeff Clark, the vice president of litigation at the Oversight Project, suggested that “James Comey was well-known by his associates as liking Oxford commas, so they named the operation (clearly motivated by revenge in response to Trump firing Comey) as a hommage (Fr.) to their beloved Comey. But that doesn’t explain why it was deliberately misspelled as ‘Oxferd.'”

“I’m going to go ahead and guess that they did that to deliberately frustrate future FOIA requests if anyone in the outside world happened to hear about what they thought was ‘Operation Oxford Comma’ and then go in search of the documents,” continued Clark. Then the FBI could intake a FOIA request for that and say back truthfully ‘Sorry, no responsive documents.'”

After poring over the documents, Clark discovered that in addition to misspelling “Oxford,” the FBI “substituted in a zero ( 0 ) for an ‘o’ so that it’s not Comma, it’s C0mma.”

“Totally designed to foil FOIA requests. It should be investigated as an obstruction of justice,” said Clark. “You know, some real obstruction of an official proceeding. I consulted with a document expert. He measured the o-looking letter/digit in the document and concluded it was a zero.”

Mike Howell, the president of the Oversight Project, told Blaze News, “They knew what they were doing was wrong. They knew that because it was wrong. Shame on them and those who cheered them on.”

‘We are the cat. And the cat likes eating mice.’

When asked whether his government watchdog organization frequently encounters clearly intentional efforts to hide documents with misspellings, Howell answered in the affirmative and noted, “Keep in mind that in the FOIA obstruction by Fauci adviser [David] Morens, it was our FOIA being obstructed.”

“As you know, I try to always communicate on gmail because my NIH email is FOIA’d constantly,” Morens wrote to the top scientists involved in figuring out where COVID-19 came from, including Peter Daszak, the disgraced head of the now-defunct EcoHealth Alliance, which directed U.S. funds into the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

“Stuff sent to my gmail gets to my phone,” continued Morens, “but not my NIH computer.”

Howell noted further that “bureaucrats, particularly at high levels, are acutely aware that sophisticated investigative operations will target them. It is a game of cat and mouse. We are the cat. And the cat likes eating mice.”

Editor’s note: Mike Howell is a contributor to Blaze News.

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​Crossfire hurricane, Donald trump, Hillary clinton, James comey, Lisa page, Peter strzok, Deep state, Politics 

President Donald Trump is known for taking on whoever he wants, but his latest target has even some conservatives raising eyebrows — and wondering if the government is abandoning the free market principles America thrives on.

“Based on a shortage, they’re making too much money,” Trump told reporters about Exxon Mobile and Chevron. “I don’t like it.”

“When we’re finished with Iran, you’re going to see the prices drop through the floor. But they made too much money. Too much money. Chevron, too much money. Exxon Mobile, too much. Too much money,” he continued.

“You’re surprised? I’m saying it. I’ll say it loud and clear,” the president added.

“This is concerning,” BlazeTV host Pat Gray comments.

“That’s not capitalism,” he adds.

“Just to look ahead, Mr. President,” Jeff Fisher chimes in, “when the prices do drop through the floor, they’ll have had this money to maybe survive on a little while.”

Executive producer Keith Malinak points out that on February 27, Chevron closed at $189 a share.

“Today, they’re all the way to $193 a share,” he says.

Meanwhile, Exxon is up $6 a share.

“So very modest stock gains at least for those two companies in the last six months. It’s not like how drug companies did with your vaccine,” he adds.

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​Capitalism, Chevron, Donald trump, Free market, Iran, Exxon, Blazetv show 

Anthony Fauci has had a tough time lately.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier revealed on Wednesday that he had issued a subpoena to the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, seeking documents “ranging to what he knew, when he knew it, his doubts about the safety and efficacy of vaccines that he’s out there promoting.”

The resolution was ‘passed on behalf of the millions of Americans and their families still affected years after the COVID pandemic.’

Fauci’s week was, however, fated to get a whole lot worse.

Despite strong Democratic opposition, the Senate Homeland Security Committee successfully voted on Thursday to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress.

The contempt resolution passed in a 8-5 vote along party lines, and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said he will now refer the resolution to the Justice Department for possible prosecution.

Paul noted that Fauci was knowingly provided a full and unconditional pardon in former President Joe Biden’s name on Jan. 19, 2025, for any offenses against the U.S. he may have committed or taken part in between Jan. 1, 2014, and that date.

Despite apparently being unable to incriminate himself by answering lawmakers’ questions last week, he declined to answer, citing the Fifth Amendment over 110 times.

The resolution noted that committee Chairman Paul “found the privilege of the Fifth Amendment unsupported as applied to questions pertaining to the period of the pardon and directed Dr. Fauci to answer,” and “overruled the privilege of the Fifth Amendment asserted by Fauci,” directing the former NIAID director to provide relevant testimony, warning him that he may otherwise be held in contempt.

RELATED: The Biden autopen scandal has one big winner: Anthony Fauci

Brendan SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images

Fauci may soon pay the price for ignoring Paul’s warning.

Paul noted on X that the resolution was “passed on behalf of the millions of Americans and their families still affected years after the COVID pandemic.”

A conviction for contempt of Congress can result in a $100,000 fine and prison sentence of up to one year.

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​Anthony fauci, Fifth amendment, James uthmeier, Rand paul, Senate, Joe biden, Politics 

Anthony Fauci is probably going to skate. He should not. But nearly every institutional and political incentive now points toward that outcome.

Americans who watched Fauci invoke the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times before the Senate are understandably furious. They may also be headed for an epic letdown when the man they most want held accountable resumes his life in pompous peace.

Public frustration will rise when people realize that Fauci may leave Congress untouched after pleading the Fifth more than 100 times.

The first obstacle is the legal uncertainty surrounding Fauci’s autopenned pardon.

The pardon was signed by autopen, and substantial evidence raises questions about whether President Biden personally authorized it. A presidential pardon is an authority only the president may exercise.

In Fauci’s case, the written record includes an email from Biden chief of staff Jeff Zients on the final evening of the administration. Zients emailed: “I approve the use of the autopen for the execution of all of the following pardons.”

Biden later told the New York Times in an interview that he had approved broad categories of pardons rather than, in every instance, specific names.

That admission came from the same newspaper that had initially dismissed the Oversight Project’s autopen disclosures in an article headlined “How an Autopen Conspiracy Theory About Biden Went Viral.” Within months, the Times had moved from ridicule to damage control.

The basic facts are therefore established: Fauci’s pardon was executed by autopen, and serious questions remain about Biden’s awareness and authorization.

President Trump has called the autopen controversy the scandal of the century and declared the affected actions “VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT.” The Department of Justice, however, has behaved as though that declaration carries no legal consequence.

That gap between political assertion and prosecutorial action is decisive. Questioning a pardon’s validity in public is one thing. Charging someone whose defense rests on that pardon is another. So far, the Justice Department has shown no appetite for testing the issue in court.

Fauci’s Senate testimony exposed the contradiction at the center of his position. He repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment, arguing that Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) was trying to lure him into statements that could support a perjury referral.

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In his opening statement, Fauci said: “The only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something — anything — that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, ‘behind bars.’”

A witness may invoke the Fifth Amendment when he genuinely believes his answers could expose him to criminal liability. The privilege is not a general escape hatch from politically uncomfortable questioning.

Fauci’s plausible claim of criminal exposure rests, at least in part, on the uncertainty surrounding his pardon. But relying on that uncertainty means conceding that the pardon may not be beyond challenge.

If Fauci insists the pardon is unquestionably valid and no prosecution is possible, he weakens the basis for invoking the Fifth. If he claims a real risk of prosecution, he implicitly acknowledges that the pardon may not protect him.

The same cloud that threatens the pardon also strengthens his Fifth Amendment claim.

That sounds like vulnerability. In practice, it may protect him.

There is still no sign that the Justice Department plans to prosecute Fauci or anyone else in a case designed to test an autopen action. The department has not challenged a single autopenned pardon or commutation.

Worse, the Trump administration continues releasing offenders whose sentences Biden shortened by autopen. The executive branch is carrying out the very orders the president has publicly described as nullities.

For the Oversight Project, that contradiction is more than theoretical. It’s incredibly frustrating. Putting violent felons back on the street is difficult to reconcile with the claim that autopenned acts are void.

Could Congress hold Fauci in contempt for invoking the Fifth rather than answering questions? Possibly. Probably not.

Fauci would likely show enough basis to argue that Paul sought a criminal referral and that the uncertainty surrounding his pardon created a genuine risk of prosecution.

Any challenge would probably be litigated in federal court in Washington, D.C., a venue far friendlier to Fauci than many others. That venue alone improves his odds.

The political barriers are even greater. There are almost certainly not enough votes in the Senate to pursue contempt, both because of uncertainty over whether Fauci’s conduct crossed the legal line and because senators fear accusations of political weaponization.

Getting 60 votes to overcome a filibuster is a fantasy. Even clearing Paul’s committee, divided 8-7, may prove difficult. Senator James Lankford (R-Okla.) has already expressed some sympathy for Fauci’s position.

Paul has suggested another path: If the committee approves contempt on Thursday, he could refer the matter directly to the Justice Department or pursue a civil action.

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Fauci would immediately argue that a committee cannot exercise the contempt power of the full Senate. He would contend that without a vote of the whole chamber, there is no valid contempt finding to enforce.

The courts are likely to agree. Which leaves the public exactly where it began.

Congress has little chance of imposing consequences. The only meaningful route runs through the Justice Department: charge Fauci, force litigation over the pardon, and finally test whether Biden lawfully authorized it.

That would require the department to abandon the passivity it has displayed so far.

Public frustration will rise when people realize that Fauci may leave Congress untouched after pleading the Fifth more than 100 times.

The useful response is not another round of televised outrage. It is sustained pressure on the Justice Department to treat autopenned actions the way Trump himself described them: null and void.

​Anthony fauci, Autopen scandal, Department of justice, Fifth amendment, New york times, Opinion & analysis, Oversight project, Rand paul, Pardon, Gain of function, Contempt of congress