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Sens. Rand Paul and Ron Johnson are urging the Trump Justice Department to challenge former President Joe Biden’s pardon of Dr. Anthony Fauci, arguing that recent indictments of two former Fauci associates could help investigators examine pandemic-era research decisions.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Two Republican senators are calling on the Trump Justice Department to challenge former President Joe Biden’s pardon of Dr. Anthony Fauci and consider criminal charges against the former federal health official over his role during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told Just the News that the pardon should be tested in court because of its broad scope and lack of specificity, according to a Just the News report.
“I think we should challenge the pardon, because it’s an extraordinary pardon. It’s a pardon not for a specific crime, and it’s a pardon over a 10 year period. It’s the same that he got the same thing Hunter Biden got,” Paul said Tuesday on the Just the News, No Noise television program.
“I think that could be challenged in court, because it’s not specific, it’s vague, and it doesn’t specify the crime, and it’s such a large period of time. So, I think it could be challenged, and should be challenged,” he added.
Fauci, who served as the nation’s top infectious disease official during the pandemic, has long denied wrongdoing and has dismissed accusations from critics who allege he misled Congress or obscured the origins of COVID-19.
Biden pardoned Fauci in 2024 before leaving office. Paul compared the action to Biden’s pardon of his son, Hunter Biden, and questioned whether Biden personally approved the decision because it was signed by autopen.
“Was President Biden of sound mind? Did he understand who he was pardoning? Did he participate in it? Did he approve of each of the ones that were signed by autopen?” Paul said.
Johnson echoed Paul’s concerns Wednesday, telling Just the News that he believes Fauci should face prosecution.
“Anthony Fauci is a bad person, and he ought to be prosecuted, because I believe he did commit crimes,” Johnson said.
Johnson also said he is “pretty certain” that research funded under Fauci’s watch caused the COVID pandemic.
Paul, who has repeatedly clashed with Fauci in Senate hearings, pointed to a timeline released by his committee last week. He said the documents show Fauci launched a public-relations effort in early 2020 to steer scrutiny away from federally funded research in China as questions grew about whether the virus may have originated from a laboratory.
Speaking with Just the News, Paul said emails and documents obtained by his office show Fauci was communicating in late January 2020 with Dr. Robert Kadlec, who oversaw dangerous research. Paul said Fauci was emailing at 3 a.m. and asserting that the virus originated in animals and had “nothing to do with the lab.”
Paul also accused Fauci of contacting associates in the intelligence community to shape their understanding of events at the Wuhan laboratory.
“He already knows he’s going to have to defend this because he outsourced this dangerous research to China. There weren’t adequate safety controls, and now he’s got to start the spin,” Paul said.
Paul argued that Fauci had both political and personal reasons to distance himself from the research. He said Fauci, in his role as a health official, funded work that altered viruses in ways that made them better adapted to infect humans.
According to Paul, a group of top virologists privately told Fauci on Feb. 1, 2020, that the virus appeared engineered, citing the furin cleavage site. A furin cleavage site is a short amino acid sequence that can allow a host enzyme called furin to cut and activate a viral protein.
Several of those scientists later published a prominent paper concluding that the virus was “not a laboratory construct.”
Paul criticized the phrasing.
He called it “adamant language you rarely see in a scientific article, political type of language, PR type of language.”
Paul also said one author later received an $8 million grant approved by Fauci. Fauci then cited the paper during White House briefings as independent evidence against the lab-leak theory, even though Paul said Fauci had helped commission and edit it.
“It’s a big circle, but it’s all around Anthony Fauci,” Paul said.
Paul also cited recent federal indictments involving two former Fauci associates as possible leverage for investigators.
David Morens, a former senior official at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was accused of destroying federal records and acting as an intermediary for Fauci.
Vincent Munster, a virologist, was charged in connection with importing dangerous pathogens into the United States without a permit while allegedly claiming they were “diagnostic equipment.”
Paul said both men were connected to research grants that proposed creating viruses with features similar to SARS-CoV-2.
The Kentucky senator said Morens and Munster could potentially provide testimony if prosecutors offered leniency in exchange for cooperation.
“My goodness, it would be worth it to see one or two of his lieutenants give up testimony that they would not have given up otherwise, but now that they’ve been indicted, might be inclined to tell the truth,” Paul said.
The senators’ comments signal continuing Republican pressure for a deeper legal examination of pandemic-era decisions, including U.S.-funded research, the early public narrative about COVID-19’s origin and Biden’s broad pardon of Fauci.
The Justice Department has not announced whether it will challenge the pardon or pursue charges against Fauci.
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