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Fauci referred to Justice Department for criminal investigation for
allegedly lying under oath to Congress
Brianna Herlihy
Wed, August 9, 2023 at 12:53 PM PDT·4 min read
3.8k

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has referred Dr. Anthony Fauci to the Justice
Department for investigation into possible criminal prosecution for
allegedly lying under oath to Congress about his knowledge of
gain-of-function research conducted at China's Wuhan virus lab.

In a letter to District of Columbia U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves, the
Kentucky Republican requested that the DOJ investigate whether the
former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases (NIAID), which is a part of the National Institutes of Health
(NIH), broke the law with false statements made in congressional
testimony under a statute punishable by time in federal prison.

"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 (Wuhan Institute of Virology) to his colleagues," Paul wrote.

"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. For this reason, I request that you
investigate whether Dr. Fauci’s statements to Congress on May 11, 2021,
violated 18 U.S.C. § 1001 or any other statute," Paul added.

PAUL LAMBASTS FAUCI FOR GETTING 'TREATED LIKE A PRESIDENT' WITH
TAXPAYER-FUNDED SECURITY

Dr. Anthony Fauci stands
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has referred Dr. Anthony Fauci, above, to the
Justice Department for criminal investigation.
Fauci testified before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor
and Pensions on May 11, 2021, saying that "the NIH has not ever and does
not now fund gain-of function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology."

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In a subsequent hearing, Paul "warned Dr. Fauci of the criminal
implications of lying to Congress and offered him an opportunity to
recant his previous statements," the senator noted in the letter.

"In response, Dr. Fauci stated that he had ‘never lied before the
Congress’ and ‘d[id] not retract that statement,'" Paul wrote.

The Kentucky senator said Fauci’s testimony is inconsistent with emails
that have since come to light that show Fauci knew of gain-of-function
research in early 2020.

On Feb. 1, 2020, Fauci sent an email, which the House Select
Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic recently released,
"acknowledging concerns that COVID-19 may have been genetically
engineered because gain-of-function research was taking place in Wuhan
before the pandemic."

EX-CDC DIRECTOR SAYS UNREDACTED FAUCI GAIN-OF-FUNCTION EMAIL REVEALS
'AGGRESSIVE ATTEMPT' TO CHANGE NARRATIVE

In the email — written weeks before a federal COVID emergency was first
declared — Fauci wrote that "scientists 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."

Further, gain-of-function research in Wuhan was funded by the agency
that Fauci led, Paul noted.

Paul's letter highlights a paper titled "Discovery of a rich gene pool
of bat SARS-related coronaviruses provides new insights into the origin
of SARS coronavirus," which described in-depth the research carried out
at the WIV and funded in part through NIAID.

The paper's author, Dr. Shi Zhengli, details the research in which the
spike genes from two uncharacterized bat SARS-related coronavirus
strains were combined with the genomic backbone of another SARS-related
coronavirus to create novel chimeric SARS-related viruses that showed
cytopathic effects in primate epithelial cells and replication in human
epithelial cells, according to Paul.

"These experiments combined genetic information from different
SARS-related coronaviruses and combined them to create novel, artificial
viruses able to infect human cells," Paul wrote.

The experiments, funded by NIH, meet the definition of gain-of-function
research, the senator concluded.

HIGH-RANKING FAUCI ADVISER USED PERSONAL EMAIL TO AVOID FOIA REQUESTS,
DISCUSS COVID ORIGIN

Anthony Fauci testifying
Dr. Anthony Fauci responds to questions at a Senate Health, Education,
Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on Capitol Hill.
In his letter, Paul also references a report published on June 14, 2023,
that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) concluded the WIV and
Wuhan University received NIH funding.

The report noted that the NIH funded a WIV project titled "Understanding
the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence," which included "genetic
experiments to combine naturally occurring bat coronaviruses with SARS
and MERS viruses, resulting in hybridized coronavirus strains."

Additionally, the GAO determined that the NIH funded Wuhan University’s
collaboration with the WIV on viral detection in the Yunnan province.

Paul stated that Fauci's omissions could fall under a criminal statute
that says whoever "makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent
statement or representation" as part of "any investigation or review,
conducted pursuant to the authority of any committee, subcommittee,
commission or office of the Congress, consistent with applicable rules
of the House or Senate" is subject to criminal fines and imprisonment of
up to five years.

Neither the NIH nor Fauci responded to a request for comment from Fox
News Digital by time of publication.

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