Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that he has subpoenaed Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a key public face of the U.S. COVID-19 response, to testify before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, escalating his long-running clash with the veteran health official over COVID-19’s origins.
“For years, the media and Washington elites treated Dr. Fauci as untouchable,” Paul said in a post on X. “But if you lie to Congress, destroy records, and mislead the public about the origins of a pandemic that killed millions, you shouldn’t be above scrutiny.”
Paul’s comments came after a CNBC interview published Tuesday, where he said Fauci had previously agreed to testify voluntarily but later declined, prompting the subpoena.
Subpoena Fight Intensifies
Speaking to CNBC, Paul accused Fauci of misleading Congress about U.S.-funded gain-of-function research and claimed newly surfaced evidence strengthened his case.
Gain-of-function research refers to experiments that intentionally alter viruses or pathogens to study how they may become more transmissible or dangerous.
Paul alleged Fauci knowingly misled lawmakers about funding tied to research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and said the former NIH official attempted to shape early scientific narratives around the virus’s origin.
“If you lied to Congress and helped cover up the origins of a pandemic, you will answer for it,” Paul wrote in a separate post.
Paul also questioned the scope of former President Joe Biden’s preemptive pardon for Fauci, suggesting its legal reach may face scrutiny.
Old Debate, New Political Fire
The renewed pressure comes as debate over the lab-leak theory and U.S.-funded virology research has intensified again in Washington.
In November, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary accused Dr. Anthony Fauci of suppressing early scrutiny of a possible lab-related origin of COVID-19, calling the alleged effort a “massive cover-up.”
The controversy has also expanded beyond the NIH. Questions around USAID’s role resurfaced after Paul pressed former USAID Administrator Samantha Power during a 2023 Senate hearing over the agency’s PREDICT program and alleged Wuhan-linked research funding. Power denied that USAID funded gain-of-function research and said the agency had provided documentation related to the program.
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:SPCX) and Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk also weighed in on the controversy Tuesday while sharing a clip of Paul’s 2023 exchange with Power, posting on X that “USAID money funded coronavirus research in China that killed millions of people.”
Musk’s remarks came amid a broader political clash over USAID funding after Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) criticized Musk’s DOGE-related spending cuts and claimed the dismantling of USAID could put millions of children at risk globally. Musk pushed back on those allegations, with his latest comments appearing to shift focus toward longstanding criticism of USAID’s past funding decisions.
Fauci has repeatedly denied allegations that he misled Congress or helped cover up the virus’s origins, previously calling similar claims “preposterous.”
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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