Sen. Ron Johnson says investigators reviewing Anthony Fauci’s COVID-era iPhone found only three saved contacts despite roughly 34,000 text messages, leading him to suspect the device’s contact list was deleted and prompting efforts to identify the numbers behind the communications.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Sen. Ron Johnson said Wednesday that investigators examining Dr. Anthony Fauci’s COVID-era iPhone have encountered an unusual discrepancy: a collection of roughly 34,000 text messages but only three names remaining in the device’s contact list.
Johnson said the finding has led him to believe Fauci, or someone with access to the phone, may have deleted the contacts, leaving investigators to determine who was communicating with the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
During an interview with conservative podcast host Benny Johnson, the Wisconsin Republican described what investigators found while reviewing the phone and explained why he considers the missing contact information significant.
“What’s odd about it, Benny, is there are only three contacts in this contact list. Every other text has a phone number attached,” Ron Johnson said.
“So it indicates to me that Anthony Fauci or somebody deleted his contact list. So now we’ve got to trace and find out who are those phone numbers to,” Johnson said.
“We’ll get the phone numbers,” he added.
Johnson discussed the discovery in a video posted online.
The disclosure comes as Johnson and Sen. Rand Paul continue releasing communications recovered from Fauci’s phone as part of a Senate investigation into the federal government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations obtained a copy of Fauci’s COVID-era iPhone last month while examining the government’s pandemic response and Fauci’s previous statements to Congress. The acquisition of the device was publicized in an earlier post.
On Monday, Johnson and Paul released the first group of messages recovered from the device, focusing on communications from January 2021. Those texts included exchanges among Fauci, then-CDC Director Rochelle Walensky and Dr. Vivek Murthy, who served as surgeon general under President Joe Biden.
Among the communications released by Johnson was a message in which Fauci addressed the possibility of miscarriage following administration of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.
Fauci wrote that a second dose “theoretically could be associated with miscarriage in the 1st trimester.”
The released exchange has become part of Johnson’s broader scrutiny of what federal health officials knew and discussed privately about vaccination during the early months of the Biden administration.
The material released by Johnson has been presented as evidence that Fauci privately raised concerns involving vaccination during pregnancy. Claims accompanying the release assert that Fauci had access to data indicating an 82% miscarriage rate among women vaccinated during the first trimester and that the information was not made public.
The material also cites reports submitted to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, as showing a 4,070% increase in reported miscarriages and stillbirths following the rollout of mRNA vaccines. VAERS reports, however, are reports of events occurring after vaccination and, standing alone, do not establish that a vaccine caused a reported event.
Johnson’s latest comments shift part of the investigation toward determining who participated in Fauci’s thousands of text-message exchanges. Because most of the messages display phone numbers rather than saved names, Johnson said investigators will now have to trace the individual numbers to identify the people behind the communications.
Johnson has not presented evidence in the information released Wednesday establishing who deleted the contacts or when they were removed. His statement that Fauci or another person deleted the list reflects his inference from the phone containing only three saved contacts despite the large volume of messages.
The Senate investigation remains focused on Fauci’s communications, the federal government’s pandemic decision-making and statements Fauci previously made to Congress, with Johnson signaling that investigators intend to identify the people associated with the remaining phone numbers as their review of the approximately 34,000 messages continues.
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