A Department of Energy letter entered into the congressional record by Sen. Rand Paul states that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates held the agency’s highest-level security clearance for seven years beginning during the Obama administration.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates was granted a Department of Energy Q-level security clearance in 2014 and retained it through 2021, according to an agency letter presented Wednesday during a Senate hearing involving former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., sought unanimous consent to enter the letter into the congressional record during the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing. The seven-year period began during former President Barack Obama’s administration and coincided with Fauci’s tenure as NIAID director.
A Q clearance is the Department of Energy equivalent of a top secret national security clearance and is generally associated with access to highly sensitive nuclear, scientific and energy-related information.
The clearance “typically applies to positions involving nuclear weapons design, national laboratories, critical energy infrastructure and classified scientific research,” according to the National Security Law Firm.
Eligibility for such access remains subject to continuing review. The law firm states that reapplying after losing eligibility is possible but difficult without evidence of materially changed circumstances.
Neither the Department of Energy, the Gates Foundation nor a spokesperson for Paul immediately responded to requests for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Video of the discussion is available to watch here.
The disclosure emerged during a hearing in which Fauci declined to answer a broad range of questions. His decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic have faced years of scrutiny, particularly since thousands of his emails from the early stages of the outbreak became public in 2021.
Previously reported correspondence showed Fauci communicating with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, an executive at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and a Chinese health official. Fauci reportedly told the Chinese official that the United States and China would “get through this together.”
Paul has also criticized Gates’ financial support for research involving potentially dangerous viruses and has linked that funding to broader concerns over gain-of-function research.
“The blame equally should go not only to Chinese authorities, but to Anthony Fauci and all those who advocated for this,” Paul told Fox News.
“Look, Bill Gates has been over there recently. Bill Gates is the largest funder of trying to find these viruses in remote caves and bring them to big cities. What happened in China is they went 8 to 10 hours south of Wuhan, 2 to 300 feet deep into a cave, found viruses and took them back to a city of 15 million.”
The Department of Energy letter establishes that Gates possessed Q-level clearance during a period of heightened federal interest in advanced scientific research, global health preparedness and international disease surveillance. The document, however, does not by itself explain why the clearance was granted, what classified programs Gates may have accessed or whether the authorization was connected to his foundation’s public health activities.
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