GOP Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky wants the top Washington, D.C. prosecutor to investigate Dr. Anthony Fauci for allegedly lying under oath about the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding of gain-of-function research and the origins of Covid-19.
Paul sent a letter to U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves Tuesday, demanding a probe of Fauci for allegedly perjuring himself during a congressional hearing in 2021 when Fauci said Covid-19 didn’t come from a Chinese lab.
In July 2021, Paul sent a criminal referral to President Joe Biden’s Justice Department (DOJ) alleging that Dr. Fauci lied to Congress about gain-of-function research.
“Because of the DOJ’s inaction regarding Fauci’s lies to Congress, I’ve now sent a criminal referral to D.C. U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves. I’m demanding an investigation. Read the full letter here: http://sen.gov/1J8Q,” said Paul Tuesday on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Paul accused Fauci, former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), of lying about the gain-of-function funding provided by NIH at Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).
“Before Congress, Dr. Fauci denied funding gain-of-function research to the press; he claims to have a dispassionate view on the lab leak hypothesis, and in private, he acknowledges gain-of-function research at WIV to his colleagues. His colleagues have acknowledged Dr. Fauci’s inconsistency,” wrote Paul to Graves.
“A congressional hearing, however, is not the place for a public servant to play political games — especially when the health and well-being of American citizens is on the line.”
Fauci submitted an “official criminal referral” to the DOJ in July
In July, Paul submitted an “official criminal referral” to the DOJ over testimony Fauci gave about the coronavirus pandemic and whether it originated in a lab in Wuhan, China.
The DOJ never responded to the request from Paul, an aide to the senator told Daily Mail.
Senator Paul told Graves that Dr. Fauci, in a May 11, 2021 hearing, testified that “the NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”
However, Paul cited a February 1, 2020, email in which Fauci acknowledged concerns that Covid-19 might have been genetically engineered because gain-of-function research was happening in Wuhan before the pandemic.
“[S]cientists in Wuhan University are known to have been working on gain-of-function experiments to determine that molecular mechanisms associated with bat viruses adapting to human infection, and the outbreak originated in Wuhan,” wrote Fauci in the email.
Dr. Fauci also wrote, “in a report published on June 14, 2023, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) concluded the Wuhan Institute of Virology and Wuhan University received NIH funding.”
