I’m not going to go into all the ins and outs of Fauci’s taking the Fifth right now, although I plan to write more about Fauci. In the legal sense, however, I think that his taking the Fifth can be justified in terms of protecting himself from self-incrimination for any future state prosecution. After all, his pardon – if it holds up despite its autopen aspects – only applies to federal prosecutions.

I also defer to Alan Dershowitz on the subject of Fauci’s taking the Fifth even regarding possible federal crimes, as described in this comment (the actual article by Dershowitz is behind a paywall). I’m not sure about this part, though:

Fauci almost certainly has useful information that would help in this process. The best thing for our nation and for the world, would be to give Fauci total immunity and question him about everything he knows without giving him the right to refuse to answer questions on the ground that his answers might tend to incriminate him.

Can Congress give immunity against state prosecution? I wouldn’t think so. Perhaps, however, it can give immunity for anything said during a Congressional investigation, even if a state decides to prosecute?