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Sen. Rand Paul continues investigating lab safety, high-risk virology research and federal recordkeeping.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Anthony Fauci is expected to appear later this month for a transcribed interview with Sen. Rand Paul’s Senate committee, according to a letter that signals the two longtime adversaries may soon face each other again in a congressional setting.
The interview plans surfaced in a letter published Tuesday by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., the committee’s ranking Democrat, wrote to Paul, R-Ky., accusing him of failing to properly notify Democrats or allow them to participate in preparations for the Fauci interview.
20260609 Letter ToChairPaul HSGACRulesAndPrecedent by yourNEWS Media
Paul chairs the committee, giving Republicans control over subpoenas, witness interviews and investigative procedures. Peters wrote that he was objecting not to oversight itself, but to what he described as a process that excluded committee Democrats.
“You have failed to give the Committee minority notice and opportunity to participate in your planned transcribed interview of Dr. Anthony Fauci later this month and have worked instead to prevent any efforts to ensure a fair and legitimate oversight process,” Peters wrote.
Paul’s office and Fauci did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A transcribed interview is different from a public congressional hearing. Such interviews typically include members of Congress, committee staff, witnesses and attorneys, and the public may later receive access to transcripts or videos.
Peters wrote that he has been willing to work with Paul on the broader committee examination of lab safety and high-risk virology research in a bipartisan way. His letter, however, accused the majority of denying Democrats a meaningful role in the upcoming Fauci interview.
Paul has repeatedly questioned Fauci over COVID-19 origins, federal funding for virus research and records related to the early pandemic response. On Sept. 12, 2025, Paul called on Fauci to testify before the committee after citing emails that he said showed Fauci directing staff to delete official records in violation of federal records requirements.
One email cited by Paul was sent to then-National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins after a call with virologists about a scientific paper that dismissed the possibility of a laboratory accident in Wuhan.
“Please delete this e-mail after you read it,” Fauci wrote to Collins.
The message came after discussions tied to the scientific paper on COVID-19’s origins. Private emails and chats later obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and congressional subpoenas showed that some authors of the paper had privately raised concerns that a lab accident could have started the pandemic.
Fauci and Paul clashed frequently during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly over gain-of-function research, a term commonly used to describe research that can enhance the transmissibility or pathogenicity of viruses.
During prior questioning by Paul, Fauci denied under oath that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which he led for decades, supported gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. NIAID funded a project at the Wuhan institute that manipulated a coronavirus and generated up to 10,000 times the viral load of the original virus.
The committee’s inquiry also included May testimony from CIA whistleblower James Erdman III, who alleged that Fauci influenced the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment of COVID-19’s origins by connecting intelligence agencies with scientists tied to NIAID or the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The renewed scrutiny comes after former President Joe Biden signed a pardon for Fauci on Jan. 19, 2025, his penultimate day in office. The pardon covered unspecified crimes dating back to Jan. 1, 2014.
Paul’s planned interview with Fauci would mark another chapter in a yearslong dispute over the federal government’s pandemic response, research oversight and the handling of records connected to COVID-19 origins.
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