Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul is once again referring former top immunologist Dr. Anthony Fauci to the Justice Department following recent revelations regarding former President Joe Biden’s prolific use of an autopen.
Paul announced the referral – his second to the DOJ regarding Fauci – after reports claimed that Biden may not have personally known about or directed a pardon he granted to the former long-time head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
“In July 2023, I referred Dr. Anthony Fauci to the Department of Justice for lying under oath to Congress. His own emails directly contradicted his sworn testimony,” said Paul, according to a pres release from his office.
“The New York Times reports Fauci was quietly pardoned by an autopen, operated by Biden’s staff. If the President didn’t authorize this pardon personally, then the Department has a duty to investigate and prosecute as it would any ordinary citizen. Fauci has been sainted by the extremist Left, but it doesn’t erase his lying before Congress,” he added.
The press release noted further:
A recent report by The New York Times revealed several last-minute pardons, including one for Dr. Fauci, were executed not by President Biden himself, but by staff using an autopen. According to the report, Biden did not directly authorize all the clemency grants issued in his name, and some documents were altered by staff before being signed—without any documented presidential review or approval.
Senator Paul’s original criminal referral cites Fauci’s 2021 testimony before the Senate, where he denied the National Institutes of Health funded gain-of-function research in Wuhan. Subsequent disclosures, including Fauci’s own internal emails, called that testimony into question.
Biden’s chief of staff gave final approval to a number of high-profile preemptive pardons during Biden’s final days in office.
On his final day, Biden offered a series of preemptive pardons to officials, including Fauci and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, in an attempt to protect them from any Trump reprisals.
A New York Times article defending Biden’s use of the autopen noted that, while the president made the initial decision during a meeting, it was his chief of staff, Jeff Zients, who ultimately authorized its use for Fauci’s and Milley’s pardons.
On January 19, Biden stayed late—meeting with his aides until nearly 10 p.m. to discuss planned preemptive pardons, The New York Times reports. That evening, an aide emailed a draft summary of those decisions to Chief of Staff Jeff Zients’s assistant at 10:03 p.m.
At 10:28 p.m., the assistant forwarded the summary to Zients and Deputy Chief of Staff Bruce Reed, requesting their approval. Zients “reply all”ed his sign-off just three minutes later.
“I approve the use of the autopen for the execution of all of the following pardons,” Zients said in the email, according to the Times.
Furthermore, the Times noted that Biden did not personally approve each individual name included in those broad, categorical pardons.
“Rather, after extensive discussion of different possible criteria, he signed off on the standards he wanted to be used to determine which convicts would qualify for a reduction in sentence,” the Times reported.
When asked about the Times’ report, Trump told reporters at the White House Monday that Biden’s alleged use of the autopen amounted to possibly “one of the biggest scandals that we’ve had in 50 to 100 years.”
“I guarantee you he knew nothing about what he was signing, I guarantee you,” Trump said.
Furthermore, the White House stated that the report highlighted Biden’s lack of trustworthiness and accused his administration of covering up information.
“The same president who lied through his teeth to the American people for four years about everything from his health to the state of the economy should not be trusted again,” White House spokesperson Harrison Fields told Fox News. “The Biden administration conducted the most egregious cover-up scheme in American politics… The truth will come out about who was, in fact, running the country sooner or later, just as the truth is emerging about the state of Joe Biden’s cognitive and physical health.”