Speaking of people about to endure an investigative ordeal, yesterday Reuters ran a terrific story headlined, “US House panel seeks information from Pfizer over alleged COVID vaccine delay.” Surprisingly, it’s not about medical malpractice. The investigation is about the worst crime in the entire deplorable catalogue of human misconduct: election interference.
Philip R. Dormitzer is a prominent virologist and mRNA vaccine researcher who was Pfizer’s Global Head of Vaccine Research & Development during the pandemic. In 2021, he left Pfizer for another plum job at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). He now finds himself at the molten center of a congressional firestorm.
Of course, Reuters buried the lede. The article’s second-to-last sentence was this bombshell: “The Wall Street Journal said that GSK had reported Dormitzer’s alleged comments to federal prosecutors in New York.” Federal prosecutors means there’s an open federal investigation and Mr. Dormitzer is involved in it somehow. He could be the defendant, or they could be after bigger fish.
The latest developments could have been the plot of a legal thriller on Hulu. The only reasonable way to interpret the facts is that Dormitzer’s new boss, GSK, is throwing him under the corporate bus. And now the backup lights are on. Beep, beep, beep.
First, Dormitzer knew this was coming. The article told readers that GSK volunteered to prosecutors that, after Trump was elected in November, Mr. Dormitzer became “visibly upset” and requested immediate reassignment to Canada because of, get this, fear of being investigated. It is the legal equivalent of terrified cockroaches scurrying away when the kitchen lights switch on.
According to GSK, its HR person asked Dormitzer why he was so afraid of being investigated for his role in developing the covid shots. He said, and I am not making this up, “Let’s just say it wasn’t a coincidence, the timing of the vaccine.”
In our legal system, evidence of knowledge of a future investigation is also circumstantial evidence of consciousness of guilt. If the former Pfizer VP destroyed evidence, like by deleting his emails or trying to tell other witnesses what to say, it gets even more compelling.
But that wasn’t close to all. GSK also told the House Investigative Committee that Dormitzer repeatedly bragged to his GSK co-workers that “the three most senior” Pfizer executives decided to “slow-walk” trial results— so that the vaccine would not become available until after the 2020 elections, specifically to hurt Trump’s electoral chances.
Consistent with that testimony, Pfizer first shared its trial results on November 9, 2020 — four days after Biden won the presidential election.
The story made news this week because yesterday, House Committee Chair Jim Jordan fired off a two-page letter to Pfizer President Albert Bourla that could become historic in scope and scale. The allegations aren’t new, but they are now supported by witness statements from a credible insider (Dormitzer) and corroborating third-party testimony (GSK). This new evidence justifies deeper digging, and deeper digging is just what the House intends to do.
But maybe most encouraging was the story’s brief mention of the ongoing federal investigation out of the Southern District of New York. It could be much bigger than Dormitzer; it could be a criminal investigation of Pfizer itself. At this point, we don’t (and can’t) know; but the fact the investigation exists at all is huge.
Pfizer is a corporate juggernaut with vast and deep pockets, lobbyists, and pocketed politicians from both parties. It’s as politically well-connected as anyone, and in a case that is inherently political, is as well-protected as a Russian nuclear storage facility. Which explains why Trump’s DOJ must proceed extremely carefully, in order to build a case that could stick.
Still, despite Pfizer’s political armor and its history of surviving many other criminal prosecutions, this feels different. I couldn’t find any historical examples (at least, not from the U.S.) of big companies illegally influencing presidential elections. There’s probably a reason nobody has tried it before.
Pfizer’s woes are only just beginning. This election interference angle could be easier to prove and ultimately more damaging than Pfizer’s crimes related to the awful shots, since Pfizer lacks legal immunity for political misconduct. For anyone who wondered if there would ever be accountability, the news of multiple open investigations should be very encouraging.
So Pfizer wanted many people to die in order to have Trump removed?! They should be sued into Bankruptcy
And the people at the top ought to do TIME!