Republican Rand Paul is redoubling his efforts in his investigation into the man who led America’s COVID-19 response, Dr. Anthony Fauci.
The Kentucky senator, who has grilled Fauci about the pandemic since 2021, is demanding that he be criminally prosecuted for lying to Congress in light of new shocking details about his presidential pardon.
Fauci was granted a preemptive pardon by ex-President Joe Biden as he left office, which could shield him from some consequences related to the pandemic.
But Biden admitted the pardon was signed by autopen, and not himself, raising questions about his mental state as he issued the sweeping relief for Fauci.
‘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,’ Paul wrote in a post on X made Monday afternoon, announcing his latest legal move against Fauci.
Paul told the Daily Mail last month that he was preparing to subpoena Fauci as part of an expanded Senate investigation into the origins of Covid-19 and US-funded research in Wuhan, China.
The goal: scrutinize Fauci’s role in approving controversial virus experiments.
Paul announced earlier on Monday that he would ‘reissue [his] criminal referral of Anthony Fauci to Trump DOJ!’
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testifies during a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Sept. 14, 2022
Fauci was granted a preemptive pardon by ex-President Joe Biden as he left office
The Kentucky Republican then followed up his initial post, noting that ‘perjury is a crime. And Fauci must be held accountable.’
Fauci testified in 2023 before the U.S Senate and noted that he had ‘never lied before Congress.’
“This directly contradicts everything he said in committee hearing to me, denying absolutely that they funded any gain of function, and it’s absolutely a lie. That’s why I sent an official criminal referral to the DOJ,” Paul wrote on X back in 2023.
Paul also said that he hasn’t yet been given access to the names of people who were part of the process determining the Wuhan research, but is continuing to seek interviews.
Chairman Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) speaks during a nomination hearing with the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on Capitol Hill on April 03, 2025 in Washington, DC
US President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on June 27, 2025
During a press conference in the Oval Office held Monday morning, President Donald Trump addressed his predecessor’s autopen usage, noting that he thought it was ‘maybe one of the biggest scandals that we’ve had in 50-100 years. This is a tremendous scandal… I guarantee you he knew nothing about what he was signing. I guarantee it.’
Former President Joe Biden told the New York Times in a story published Sunday that he made ‘every decision.’
President Joe Biden greets his former Chief Medical Adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci and his wife Dr. Christine Grady, Tuesday, January 24, 2023, in the Oval Office.
But he revealed that when it came to large groups of people, he did not individually approve the names of every single person he pardoned during his final months in the White House.
Instead, he signed off on the criteria and standards he wanted to be used to determine which criminals received reduced sentences. This placed offenders into categories, some of which were issued sweeping pardons.
His decision to speak out on the issue comes after Republicans have spent months demonizing the autopen’s usage and questioning whether Biden was ever even aware of the decisions being made.
Legal experts note that enforcing a congressional subpoena can be difficult and may be dependent on whether the Justice Department wants to pursue contempt charges. Dr. Fauci also holds the option of challenging the subpoena in court, potentially further delaying any testimony.
Theo Wold, an Oversight Project board member and fellow at the Heritage Foundation, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee last month, noting that dozens of controversial clemency warrants – including Dr. Fauci’s – were signed using an autopen, not by President Biden himself. Wold argued that this procedural irregularity could undermine the validity of the pardons.
‘In addition, we found that the Biden White House used the autopen to affix President Biden’s signature to clemency warrants and executive orders while the President himself was in Washington, DC, for at least some of that day, and thus was presumably available to sign important executive actions,’ Wold added.
Many legal scholars say the US Constitution does not require a presidential pardon to be signed by hand, and judicial precedent supports the use of autopen for official documents, including pardons.
