Just before Republicans won control of the House and started looking into his time as the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci swore to retire in December 2022.
But Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul is not convinced and is demanding answers from Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, his department’s inspector general, and the current head of the National Institutes of Health about Fauci’s official employment status.
Paul pointed out that Fauci stated in a letter that he intended to leave his post in December 2022 in order to start “the next chapter” of his career, but he has also stated in media appearances that “while I am moving on from my current positions, I am not retiring.”
“While many interpreted these statements to mean Dr. Fauci would be ending his employment with the federal government in December 2022, it is not clear if that is in fact the case. This raises questions about Dr. Fauci’s current employment status and whether he is still receiving certain taxpayer-funded benefits associated with active public services, such as legal counsel and protective services,” Paul wrote.
As noted by The Daily Wire, the Kentucky Republican posed a series of questions he said he wants answered by June 30.
1. Is Dr. Fauci currently employed by, or formally affiliated in any way with, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), National Institutes of Health (NIH), or any other federal agency? If so, please describe the nature of his work and provide his current salary. If not, please provide the date in which his federal service formally ended.
2. Does Dr. Fauci currently have the ability to access non-public areas of HHS, NIH, NIAID, or any other federal agency building? Please include both federally leased and government-owned properties.
3. Does Dr. Fauci currently maintain and office within HHS, NIH, NIAID, or any other federal agency? Please include both federally leased and government-owned properties.
4. Is Dr. Fauci currently receiving any legal representation or legal advice through HHS, NIH, NIAID, or any other federal agency? This includes legal representation and legal advice from federal agency counsel, as well as any federally contracted outside representation.
5. Is Dr. Fauci currently receiving a protective detail and/or security services funded by the U.S. Secret Service, HHS, NIH, NIAID, or any other federal agency? Please include protective detail and security services provided by a federal agency counsel, as well as any federally contracted security services.
Paul is not backing down in his fight against Fauci.
During an interview on Fox News’s “Fox & Friends,” Paul continued to demand that Fauci be held accountable for his alleged mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Paul said he believes Fauci’s unwillingness to acknowledge certain things about the pandemic and the origins of the virus could land him in serious trouble.
“Yeah, I think Fauci deserves culpability and history is going to judge him very poorly because he made the judgment to fund this research,” Paul said. “It’s dangerous research. He doesn’t want to call it a gain of function, but most other scientists do call it a gain of function, in Wuhan, an opaque totalitarian country. And in the end, there was a leak from the lab and millions of people died worldwide.”
Paul also said that he believes Fauci was untruthful at times during his testimony before Congress, adding that “it’s a felony punishable by five years in jail” if someone is actually charged with lying under oath.
Earlier this year, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan said Republicans are building their case against Fauci.
Fauci says he’s received death threats over the GOP’s call to have him prosecuted.
“I mean, they don’t like to have me getting death threats all the time. Every time someone gets up and spouts some nonsense that’s misinformation, disinformation, and outright lies, somebody somewhere decides they want to do harm to me and or my family,” he said. “That’s the part of it that is really unfortunate.”
“The rest of it is just insanity, the things they’re saying. But it does have a negative effect when people take it seriously and take it out on you and your family,” he added.