Three officers impaneled to weigh JAG’s case against Jerome Adams found the former surgeon general guilty of treason after viewing documents showing he had participated in a conspiracy to mislead President Donald J. Trump about vaccine safety and the merits of locking down and bankrupting the country.
The brief but volatile tribunal, which took place Friday at Guantanamo Bay, began with Vice Adm. Darse E. Crandall labeling Adams a “traitor,” accusing him of faking loyalty to Trump while clandestinely plotting society’s downfall with co-conspirators Fauci, Birx, Hahn, and Pence. He took it a step further by likening Adams to Judas, the disciple who betrayed Christ for 30 pieces of silver, but said he had neither compassion nor forgiveness for traitors who valued money and power over loyalty and truth. He said he was honor bound to abide the U.S. Constitution and the Insurrection Act of 1807, as invoked by President Trump.
Addressing the panel, Adm. Crandall noted that Adams had at the onset of the Plandemic shared Trump’s unpopular stance that lockdowns were overkill and mask mandates would cause an increase in respiratory ailments—to the chagrin of Coronavirus Task Force colleagues whom the media caught sparring with Adams during press briefing sidebars. When Adams in early 2020 said masks would proliferate the spread of Covid-19, Fauci bristled like an angry porcupine, calling Adams’ opinion “unsound,” even though he, too, had openly waffled on how and when masks should be worn.
The admiral read from a transcript of a March 2020 conversation between Trump and Adams:
Trump: “I don’t know, Jerome, I think I should fire these guys. They’re not good, not good for this thing, this plague, that came from China. They want me to shut the greatest economy this country has ever seen, but from what I hear, from what some are saying, the China virus isn’t as bad as they’re saying it is. Most people get the sniffles. I think I’ll replace them.”
Adams: “Mr. President, I think that’d be premature. They’ll come around. They’re considered the brightest minds in medical science and firing them would ruffle a lot of feathers out there. If you trust me, I’d hold off, give me a chance to talk to them.”
Trump: “All right, Jerome, I trust you. We can’t let the China virus destroy this great country.”
Admiral Crandall told the panel that Adams was part of a “good cop, bad cop” charade in which Adams and Pence initially took Trump’s side while Fauci, Birx, and other Task Force members lobbied for mass mask mandates and business closures. To prove his point, he displayed an earlier email Adams had written to Fauci. It was dated February 27, 2020, two months before news of Operation Warp Speed hit the media.
“Tony, I have his [Trump’s] trust. In a few weeks I’ll adopt your position and tell him the science has changed and it’s time to mask up and move ahead with an accelerated program to manufacture vaccines. You mentioned a 6–9-month timetable to FDA approval, is that really enough?” it read.
The admiral faced Adams. “I honestly don’t think you knew that Fauci already had early trial data proving vaccines were injuring and killing trial participants. I don’t think they shared that with you. You actually had trepidations, but still you followed their agenda. And when the time came, you went full throttle into it, telling the President vaccines would save millions of lives—”
Adams, who had been silent, suddenly spoke: “That’s right. I was told the vaccines would be safe and effective and have only mild side effects on a small subset of people.”
“If so, you still accepted financial reward for your role,” Adm. Crandall said. “Deep State greed is indeed pervasive.”
He showed the panel Adams’ financials. Adams had received four direct deposits, each for $250k, in the first half of 2020. The National Library of Medicine, an NIH subsidiary, had issued the payments.
“I’m baffled,” the admiral said. “Your official salary was $133k annually and you sold your soul for a million bucks. You got cheated. Do you have any idea how much Fauci and Birx got paid from Pfizer and Moderna? Tens of millions, detainee Adams, tens of millions, and you got a million dollars. Fauci never got to spend it.”
He reused the tactic he had on Stephen Hahn at his tribunal, showing Adams a photograph of Fauci dangling from a rope.
Adams breathed deeply, gasping for air, his chest heaving. His handcuffed hands reached for a pitcher of water on the table.
“Do you need medical attention?” Adm. Crandall asked.
Adams shook his head. “No.”
“What you knew or didn’t know isn’t the question here, it’s whether you, an appointed official, intentionally betrayed and misled the President of the United States. That, detainee Adams, is treason,” Adm. Crandall said. “And that’s why JAG and the Office of Military Commissions is asking this panel to judge.”
The panel voted unanimously: guilty. They told the admiral that Adams ought to hang for deceiving the President.
“Judas was destroyed by sin,” Vice Adm. Crandall said. “Your life, as you know it, ends at the hands of this commission. I hereby sentence you to hang on Monday, February 13.”
As an aside, to our knowledge, this is the first time the admiral cited scripture at a military tribunal.