There are some questions that should not take a lawyer to answer. Sen. Joni Ernst put one of them directly to Dr. Anthony Fauci during Wednesday’s Senate hearing. First, Ernst walked through a series of federally funded experiments involving tissue from aborted babies. Then she stripped away the speeches, the evasions, and the bureaucratic language. She wanted one word from Fauci: yes or no. Watch the exchange that is now spreading across social media: This is just horrific… My God… they all need to pay dearly. Dr. Fauci sowed the fingers and scalps of aborted babies into the backs of research mice, which the scalps grew fine baby hair. — MJTruthUltra (@MJTruthUltra) July 29, 2026 Ernst’s question was blunt: Did Fauci believe body parts from aborted babies should be put into mice for coronavirus research? Fauci did not say yes. He did not say no. Instead, he replied: “On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment.” The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee identifies Wednesday’s proceeding as a full committee hearing titled “Testimony of Anthony Fauci.” Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was the sole witness listed for the hearing. Throughout the morning, he repeatedly invoked the constitutional protection against self-incrimination while senators questioned him about pandemic-era decisions, federal research funding, and statements he made to Congress. The committee’s official recording captures Ernst asking the yes-or-no question near the end of her allotted time. It also captures Fauci’s complete response before the next senator took over: he asserted his Fifth Amendment rights and gave no answer to the substance of what she asked. Ernst brought the hearing into a particularly dark corner of the federal research record. She described experiments in which human fetal tissue was grafted onto laboratory animals, including fetal scalp tissue that later grew fine human hair. Ernst posted her own reaction after the hearing: How does Dr. Fauci sleep at night knowing his labs were using aborted baby body parts? Sickening. — Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) July 29, 2026 Here is the part that can be independently confirmed. A 2020 Scientific Reports study described the creation of humanized mouse and rat models using fetal tissue obtained at 18 to 20 weeks of gestation. The stated goal was to build a laboratory platform with human skin and immune cells that could be used to study skin infections. The researchers removed the animals’ skin over the rib cage and grafted full-thickness human fetal skin from the scalp and back into that space. They also processed fetal liver, thymus, and spleen tissue, then transplanted those materials to help build the humanized immune systems used in the study. The published paper states that fine human hair became visible on the grafted scalp tissue after roughly 12 weeks. In a later test, researchers injected methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus into the human skin grafts to determine whether the model could support a human skin infection. It also lists NIAID grant R21AI135412 among the sources of federal support. Fauci led NIAID at the time. A critical distinction belongs on the record: there is no evidence that Fauci personally performed the grafting, handled fetal tissue, or sewed anything onto a mouse. The viral description goes beyond what the evidence establishes. What the evidence does establish is disturbing enough without exaggeration: the institute Fauci ran helped fund research that used human fetal scalp and organ tissue from second-trimester terminations in laboratory animals. The paper says the tissue was obtained through the University of Pittsburgh’s tissue bank after medically indicated or elective terminations, with written maternal consent and institutional review. Those disclosures answer where the tissue came from. They do not settle the moral question Ernst put before Fauci. And when she asked him that question under oath, he invoked the Fifth. Invoking the Fifth does not amount to an admission of guilt. The amendment protects witnesses from being compelled to give testimony that could be used against them, and Americans do not surrender that right because a senator asks an explosive question on camera. The Associated Press reported that Fauci said he feared his answers could expose him to a new investigation or a perjury allegation. Committee Chairman Rand Paul disputed that justification for conduct covered by former President Joe Biden’s preemptive pardon and announced a contempt vote for next week. Fauci appeared under subpoena and declined to answer substantive questions across the hearing, including Ernst’s question about fetal-tissue research. Paul argued that the pardon removed Fauci’s risk of prosecution for the covered period, while Fauci’s attorneys maintained that answers could still create fresh legal exposure. The report also described the sharp partisan divide inside the room. Republicans accused Fauci of evasion and deception, while Democrats portrayed the proceeding as political retaliation against a public-health official. But Ernst was not asking Fauci to reconstruct a grant application or recall a technical date from years ago. She asked what he believed. Should body parts from aborted babies be placed into mice for coronavirus research? That moral question now lands differently because federal policy has changed. A January 2026 National Institutes of Health notice says NIH funds may no longer support research using human fetal tissue obtained from elective abortions. The policy took effect when the notice was published and replaced the agency’s previous requirements for fetal-tissue research. The restriction covers NIH’s own intramural program as well as extramural grants, cooperative agreements, other transaction awards, and research-and-development contract proposals issued after the effective date. Currently funded organizations may redirect released funds toward work that remains allowable under the new rule. The notice says fetal tissue from miscarriages and stillbirths may still be used under existing legal and consent requirements. It also states that NIH-supported fetal-tissue research had already fallen sharply, reaching 77 projects in fiscal year 2024. In other words, the federal government now refuses to fund the very category of research at the center of Ernst’s question. The study is public. The grant number is public. The images of human hair growing from grafted fetal scalp tissue are public. And now Fauci’s refusal to answer one simple yes-or-no question is public too. This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here. The post WATCH: Sen. Joni Ernst Confronts Dr. Fauci Over Aborted-Baby Research — Then Demands One Yes-or-No Answer appeared first on 100PercentFedUp.com.

Dr. Anthony Fauci walked into the United States Senate on Wednesday under subpoena. He walked out facing two separate paths that could put him under fresh legal scrutiny. The first is moving through Congress, where Sen. Rand Paul announced a committee vote on whether to hold Fauci in contempt. The second is in Florida, where the state attorney general has already said his office is actively considering whether it can build a criminal case against Fauci under state law. That is the part former President Joe Biden’s preemptive federal pardon may not be able to touch. Watch Sen. Ashley Moody explain why the Florida track matters: IT'S OFFICIAL: Dr. Fauci will not only face a CONTEMPT vote by the Senate committee but now a FLORIDA AG investigation at the state-level — BOTH go around the pardon SEN. ASHLEY MOODY: "I had to litigate to open back up entire industries and win in court. Everything we did to… pic.twitter.com/COLVhlPwR7 — Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) July 29, 2026 Fauci’s appearance was not voluntary. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee identified him as the sole witness for its July 29 hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building. The official listing names Fauci’s former role leading NIAID from 1984 through 2022 and provides the archived hearing video. Paul had subpoenaed the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to answer questions about the origins of COVID-19, government-funded research, and Fauci’s prior statements to Congress. The full committee conducted the proceeding under its formal oversight authority. But instead of another long back-and-forth between the two men, Fauci repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to answer the committee’s questions. He accused Paul of trying to trap him into making a statement that could later be used as the basis for prosecution. Paul responded by telling Fauci there would be repercussions for his refusal to testify. The official committee video shows the conflict unfolding across a hearing that lasted roughly three hours. Fauci delivered an opening statement, took his seat under oath, and then declined question after question as Republicans pressed him on research grants, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, internal government records, and the pandemic response. By the end, the dispute was no longer only about what Fauci had said years ago. It was also about whether his refusal to answer under Wednesday’s subpoena could trigger a new contempt proceeding. The Associated Press reported that Fauci declined to answer questions after stating in his opening remarks that Paul had an “obvious obsession” with prosecuting him. Fauci said he believed the hearing was designed to produce a statement that could be used against him. Republicans argued that Fauci’s pardon left him with no legitimate reason to fear federal prosecution for conduct covered by that pardon. They also stressed that a pardon issued in January 2025 could not cover a new offense committed during the July 2026 hearing. Fauci’s attorneys took the opposite position, pointing to possible exposure outside the pardon and arguing that he retained his constitutional right against self-incrimination. The disagreement was central because Fauci’s refusal, rather than any new substantive answer, became the basis for the threatened contempt action. The hearing then became openly chaotic. Paul had one of Fauci’s attorneys removed after the lawyer repeatedly tried to address the committee without being recognized. By the time the hearing ended, Paul had announced that the Republican-led panel would vote next week on a resolution to certify contempt. AP also noted the wider dispute behind the spectacle. Paul has accused Fauci of misleading Congress about government-supported research and the origins of the pandemic, while Fauci has denied wrongdoing and called the prosecution campaign politically motivated. More than 150 infectious-disease experts signed a letter defending Fauci before the hearing, according to AP. Republicans on the committee nevertheless argued that the public still had not received straight answers about decisions that shaped lockdowns, school closures, research oversight, and public trust. Here is the announcement: BREAKING: Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) announces that the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee will vote on a resolution next week to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt over his refusal to answer questions & plead the fifth despite having a blanket pardon. — Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) July 29, 2026 A committee vote is not the same thing as a conviction or even a filed criminal charge. If the resolution passes, Congress would still have to decide how to pursue the matter, and any criminal case would ultimately depend on federal prosecutors and the courts. That makes the scheduled vote the opening of a legal fight, not its conclusion. Florida is the second track. Florida’s Voice reported in June that Attorney General James Uthmeier was already considering whether his office could bring state charges against Fauci. The question came during a public news conference and Uthmeier answered it on camera. Asked directly whether Florida might prosecute him, Uthmeier answered yes. He said his office believed there had been deception and was looking for a case it could legally prove. The attorney general did not limit his comments to political criticism. He described prosecution as an active possibility and said Florida would move when prosecutors had a case ready. He did not announce an indictment, identify a completed charging document, or claim that Florida had already proven a specific offense. That remains the line between a possible investigation and an actual criminal case. What he did make clear was that the possibility was under active consideration—and that Wednesday’s testimony gave Florida officials another public record to examine. Uthmeier made the comments during a June news conference while discussing a different Florida prosecution involving a Biden commutation. He said any Fauci case would depend on the evidence and on whether prosecutors could prove an offense under state law. That earlier announcement matters now because Moody did not invent the Florida possibility during Wednesday’s hearing. The state’s top prosecutor had already put it on the record. Her comments added pressure for his office to examine the new testimony and determine whether it changes the legal picture. The distinction matters. Biden’s pardon was federal. It does not automatically wipe away state jurisdiction, and it cannot prospectively erase conduct that occurred after the pardon was issued. But state prosecutors would still need jurisdiction, evidence, and an applicable Florida statute. Political fury is not a substitute for those things. The Congressional Research Service explains that a congressional committee can refer a possible offense to the Justice Department, but the executive branch retains the ultimate decision on whether to investigate or prosecute. A committee resolution therefore does not function like a judge’s verdict. Congress also has more than one contempt mechanism, and the procedure chosen can determine what happens after a committee acts. Criminal contempt, civil enforcement, and Congress’s claimed inherent authority follow different paths and carry different consequences. That means neither of the two paths is automatic: the Senate committee must vote, and Florida must find a legally supportable state case. Fauci would also have the opportunity to challenge any action in court. For criminal contempt, lawmakers generally move from a committee action toward a referral for prosecution. Civil enforcement can involve the courts, while Congress has also claimed an inherent contempt authority of its own. Any prosecution would bring immediate constitutional arguments over Fauci’s invocation of the Fifth Amendment, the scope and validity of Biden’s pardon, the questions he refused to answer, and whether Congress followed the required procedure. In other words, the vote can start a serious legal battle. It cannot skip the battle. Still, Fauci left the hearing in a worse position than he entered it. He gave lawmakers almost no substantive answers, watched his lawyer get removed from the room, and heard the chairman schedule a contempt vote before the hearing was over. At the same time, a former Florida attorney general used the hearing to put the state’s current prosecutor on notice that she expects action. For years, Fauci’s defenders have argued that congressional threats against him were political theater. His critics have argued that the pardon was proof Washington’s most powerful figures were determined to shield him. Now those arguments are moving toward decisions that carry real consequences. Next week, the Senate committee will decide whether to advance the contempt fight. And in Florida, Uthmeier will have to decide whether his tough words can become an actual case. This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here. The post Dr. Fauci Now Facing Two Possible Investigations and Charges After Disastrous Testimony To Congress appeared first on 100PercentFedUp.com.

Florida did something Tuesday it had not done since 1964: it carried out two executions on the same day. James Aren Duckett, 68, and Dominick Anthony Occhicone, 80, were put to death nearly five hours apart inside the same execution chamber at Florida State Prison. Both men had spent roughly four decades behind bars for crimes that shattered three families. The first execution involved one of the most horrifying abuses of a police badge imaginable. The second closed a case that began with the murders of an elderly couple inside their own home. This video lays out the cases and shows the families at the center of Tuesday’s historic day: NEW: Florida has carried out a double execution for the first time in 60 years. Former Florida cop James Duckett has been executed after he r*ped and killed an 11-year-old girl. Prosecutors say Duckett kidnapped 11-year-old Teresa Mae McAbee from a store where she was buying a… pic.twitter.com/aXsWFrt7DG — Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) July 29, 2026 Duckett was working as the only police officer on duty in Mascotte on the night 11-year-old Teresa McAbee disappeared from a convenience store in May 1987. Witnesses saw Teresa get into Duckett’s patrol car. Her body was found the next morning in a nearby lake. Investigators recovered fingerprints matching Teresa and Duckett from the patrol car. Hair and biological evidence collected from Teresa’s body were also presented against him at trial. Duckett was convicted of raping and drowning the child. He maintained his innocence until the end and declined to make a final statement before he was pronounced dead at 1:19 p.m. After the execution, Teresa’s mother reduced nearly four decades of grief and waiting to nine words: “I waited nearly 40 years to have him dead.” The Associated Press reported that Duckett became the 11th person executed by Florida this year. Occhicone followed in the same chamber and was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m., making him the oldest known prisoner executed in Florida’s modern record-keeping history and the second-oldest person put to death anywhere in the United States during the modern era. Occhicone was convicted of murdering Raymond and Martha Artzner in June 1986. Authorities said he went to their home looking for his former girlfriend, left after she refused to speak with him, returned with a handgun, cut the telephone lines, and shot both parents as the woman escaped with her daughter. Before the lethal injection began, Occhicone thanked the Christian men who had visited him in prison and apologized to the victims’ family and his own. The Artzner children later said the execution ended a long and painful chapter, but did not erase the missing chairs, lost conversations, and suffering their family had carried since 1986. The numbers show how sharply Florida has accelerated the use of capital punishment. Tuesday’s executions brought the state’s 2026 total to 12 — more than every other state combined at that point — after Florida carried out a record 19 executions in 2025. USA TODAY also confirmed the identities of both men and the crimes that placed them on death row: Florida has executed James Duckett – a former cop convicted of killing an 11-year-old girl in 1987 – and Dominick Occhicone, who killed his ex's parents in 1986. https://t.co/pWF3RFbAUY — USA TODAY (@USATODAY) July 29, 2026 The road to Tuesday’s double execution was not automatic, especially in Duckett’s case. The Florida Supreme Court stayed Duckett’s first execution date just before he was scheduled to die in March. The justices ordered testing of old DNA evidence that could not be evaluated with the technology available at the time of his 1988 trial. That testing came back inconclusive. It neither exonerated Duckett nor definitively tied him to the crime, and the courts left the jury’s verdict intact. The Florida Supreme Court lifted the stay in July, clearing the way for Governor Ron DeSantis to sign a new death warrant. The state court also rejected Occhicone’s final challenge in the week before his execution. Attorneys had raised his age, serious health problems, and other claims, but the court declined to halt the sentence imposed for the Artzner murders. The U.S. Supreme Court denied the last appeals from both men on Tuesday. With those rulings, no court order remained between the signed death warrants and the two lethal injections. The Florida Department of Corrections historical records show that Emmett Blake and Sie Dawson were the last two people executed by Florida on the same date. Both men were put to death on May 12, 1964, when the electric chair was still the state’s method of execution. Florida carried out multiple executions on a single day more often in earlier decades, but the practice disappeared before the modern death-penalty era began. Tuesday’s schedule broke a gap of more than six decades. The department’s modern execution records place Duckett and Occhicone at numbers 11 and 12 for 2026. Their executions were administered by a three-drug lethal-injection protocol involving a sedative, a paralytic, and a drug that stops the heart. Another Florida execution is already scheduled for August, and DeSantis has made clear that old cases will not be allowed to fade simply because decades have passed. His position has been blunt: justice delayed is justice denied, especially for families that have spent most of their lives waiting for a lawful sentence to be carried out. There will always be fierce disagreement over capital punishment, and no execution can restore Teresa McAbee, Raymond Artzner, or Martha Artzner to the people who loved them. But Florida’s action on Tuesday sent an unmistakable message: the age of a case does not erase the victims, and the passage of time does not cancel a final judgment. This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here. The post BREAKING: Florida Conducts Double Execution For The First Time In 60 Years appeared first on 100PercentFedUp.com.

The Trump administration on Tuesday announced it has officially banned gain-of-function research, saying it “has the potential to threaten lives, disrupt communities, strain public health systems, and undermine America’s economic and national security if not properly restricted and controlled.” “An America First approach to scientific research means ensuring that taxpayer dollars are never used to support dangerous gain-of-function research or proliferate any other bio risks — whether conducted in the United States or abroad,” the Department of State wrote. “The new policy establishes a transparent, accountable framework that prohibits federal support for dangerous gain-of-function research, strengthens oversight of other high-risk life sciences research, and restricts funding for research conducted in countries that lack appropriate safety, security, and oversight standards,” it continued. “During my confirmation hearing, I pledged to the American public that I would implement strong and transparent oversight of NIH-supported research,” NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya said. “Now, I am pleased to share the new U.S. Government Policy for Stopping High-Risk Life Sciences Research, a groundbreaking government-wide mandate that expressly prohibits gain-of-function research which can significantly endanger American lives and jeopardize our Nation’s security,” he added. During my confirmation hearing, I pledged to the American public that I would implement strong and transparent oversight of NIH-supported research. Now, I am pleased to share the new U.S. Government Policy for Stopping High-Risk Life Sciences Research, a groundbreaking… pic.twitter.com/kFXp6c7kEz — Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD (@NIHDirector_Jay) July 29, 2026 More from the Department of State: Scientific leadership requires both innovation and responsibility. The United States will continue to support biomedical research that develops vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, and other lifesaving medical countermeasures while ensuring that the highest-risk research is subject to rigorous safeguards. We encourage our international partners to join us in ending dangerous gain-of-function research and adopting strong biosafety and biosecurity standards that make the world safer, more secure, and better prepared for future biological threats. “The federal government has a duty to protect the American people — not fund research that could put them at risk. Today, we are ending federal support for dangerous gain-of-function research and replacing weak oversight with clear, enforceable safeguards,” Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy said. “This policy delivers on President Trump’s commitment to put safety first while ensuring America remains the global leader in ethical, responsible, and lifesaving biomedical research,” he added. The federal government has a duty to protect the American people — not fund research that could put them at risk. Today, we are ending federal support for dangerous gain-of-function research and replacing weak oversight with clear, enforceable safeguards. This policy delivers on… https://t.co/847Y48iTug — Secretary Kennedy (@SecKennedy) July 29, 2026 HHS stated: Specifically, the new policy prohibits federal support for dangerous gain-of-function research conducted in the United States and abroad, establishes rigorous independent review for certain high-risk life sciences research, and restricts federal funding for research conducted in countries or institutions that lack appropriate biosafety, biosecurity, and oversight standards. At the same time, the policy preserves critical biomedical research — including the development of vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, and other medical countermeasures — under strong safety and security safeguards. The policy replaces previous federal oversight frameworks with a unified, risk-based approach focused on the potential consequences of research rather than a limited list of pathogens. It establishes clear responsibilities for researchers, research institutions, and federal agencies to identify, assess, and manage the highest-risk life sciences research before taxpayer dollars are awarded. The post Trump Administration Announces New Policy Regarding Gain-Of-Function Research appeared first on 100PercentFedUp.com.

Fans in his native Ireland and around the world expressed condolences online this week after news broke that musician and actor Glen Hansard was killed in a motorcycle collision. Hansard leaves behind a long catalog of work, including his Oscar-winning track on the soundtrack for the independent film “Once.” The New York Post provided these details: “With broken hearts we announce the passing of Glen Hansard in the early hours of this morning,” the statement read. “We are still dealing with the shock of it all, so we kindly ask that the privacy of Glen’s family, colleagues and friends is respected at this difficult time.” Irish Prime Minister Michael Martin mourned Hansard’s sudden death, calling him “a talented musician and actor who made ⁠a significant contribution to Ireland’s cultural landscape over many years.” Tributes soon started to pour in via social media: Sometimes I would wonder if Glen Hansard really existed…. Seriously, he was such an angelic presence… not otherworldly…in fact, very present this presence… A smiling rascal if you needed him to be… this most musical and mischievous archangel of Ballymun… no airs, plenty… pic.twitter.com/8d8Cw6YTSb — U2 (@U2) July 29, 2026 Here’s the full text from U2’s Bono: Sometimes I would wonder if Glen Hansard really existed….  Seriously, he was such an angelic presence… not otherworldly…in fact, very present this presence…  A smiling rascal if you needed him to be… this most musical and mischievous archangel of Ballymun… no airs, plenty of graces…   Of course, Glen was the shining star of the Christmas Eve busk… sometimes the only one reminding the rest of us that Christmas began with a refugee born in a manger, which is hardly a step from living on the street.  To be utterly yourself by being more interested in others – a clue for any of us trying out different personas. He really was who you thought he was. He could never walk by a person living rough without checking they were OK… and more than that, he worked very hard so that less people had to live on the streets in the first place. When the crowds got bigger and for safety’s sake Glen had to agree to move the busk to a stage kindly provided outside The Gaiety Theatre, he would say ‘we’ll give it our best but it’s not a busk if we’re not on the street!’ …because that’s who he was – a performer at eye level in any situation. The stage was a separation he wouldn’t recognize. Of all the grand and gigantic venues he and The Frames played, you sensed the street was his most favoured place to perform. And street people, his favourite audience.  Voice of the streets. A choir of angels in one man. The rest of us blessed to stand there beside our very own and very earthed Angel Gabriel… All of us welcome in his choir, whatever shape or form.  ….and I’m telling myself this morning that if he never existed, then he can never cease to exist. For me, he will always be everywhere I see a coin spinning into an open guitar case.  May you rest in the peace you gave to so many.  Bono RIP Glenn one of the all time greats . Dreadfully sad — conor woods (@woodzycon) July 29, 2026 Absolutely heartbreaking. Glen Hansard's music, especially Falling Slowly, touched so many people. Rest in peace, and condolences to his family and loved ones. — Shola (@djjokotola) July 29, 2026 Per Fox News: Born in Ballymun, Dublin, in 1970, he began playing music as a teenager while busking throughout the city.  In 1990, he founded The Frames, a band that developed a devoted following over several decades. Around the same time, Hansard expanded into acting, appearing as guitarist Outspan Foster in Alan Parker’s 1991 film “The Commitments.” His career continued to evolve after “Once.” Alongside Irglová, he formed The Swell Season while also maintaining an active solo career.   His 2015 album “Didn’t He Ramble” earned a Grammy nomination for Best Folk Album. Hansard was equally recognized for the way he remained connected to Dublin’s music community despite his international success. Each Christmas Eve, he gathered fellow musicians outside Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre for a charity busking tradition benefiting the Dublin Simon Community, an annual event that became a holiday fixture for locals. Here’s a performance of his Oscar-winning song:     What are your thoughts? TAP HERE TO ADD YOUR VOTE This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here. The post Oscar-Winning Musician And Actor, 56, Killed In Motorcycle Crash appeared first on 100PercentFedUp.com.