‘Challenge in court': Sen. Rand Paul says constitutionality of Fauci pardon should be reexamined

On Wednesday, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told Just The News former NIAID (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) Director Dr. Anthony Fauci's sweeping preemptive pardon from former President Joe Biden should be challenged in court because it is unconstitutionally vague and overly broad.

The Kentucky Republican, who serves as chairman of the U.S. Senate's Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, called the pardon “extraordinary,” noting it covers potential offenses over a 10-year period without naming specific crimes, similar to the one granted to Hunter Biden, and was infamously signed by autopen.

Fauci "ought to be prosecuted" Johnson says

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., echoed Paul's claim, telling Just the News on Wednesday that he's "pretty certain" what Fauci funded in terms of research caused the COVID pandemic.

"Anthony Fauci is a bad person, and he ought to be prosecuted, because I believe he did commit crimes," Johnson said.

Biden infamously pardoned Fauci in 2024 before leaving office. Paul compared the pardon to Hunter Biden’s, saying it could — and should — be challenged because it is vague and doesn’t name a specific crime and covers a 10-year period.

Referencing the autopen action, Paul added, "Was President Biden of sound mind? Did he understand who he was pardoning? Did he participate in it? Did he approve of each of the ones that were signed by autopen?"

Paul described some of the most alarming elements of a detailed timeline his committee released last week, and accused Fauci of launching a public relations campaign to deflect scrutiny from his agency’s funding of risky virus research in China as the COVID-19 pandemic emerged in early 2020.

Paul detailed a timeline of Fauci’s actions speaking exclusively to Just The News, citing emails and documents his office obtained. Paul highlighted from the timeline that Fauci was awake at 3 a.m. in late January 2020, emailing Dr. Robert Kadlec, who oversaw dangerous research, falsely asserting the virus originated in animals with “nothing to do with the lab.” Fauci also called on old friends within the intelligence community, according to Paul, to mislead them about what was really going on at the Wuhan, China laboratory.

“He (Fauci) already knows he’s going to have to defend this because he outsourced this dangerous research to China. There weren’t adequate safety controls, and now he's got to start the spin,” Paul said. Paul noted that Fauci's spin operation was not only necessary for political purposes, but for survival, because in Fauci's capacity as a health official, he funded research to humanize the virus and re-adapted it to make it more contagious to humans.

Within a week, according to Paul, on Feb. 1, 2020, a group of top virologists privately told Fauci the virus appeared engineered, citing its furin cleavage site. The furin cleavage site is a short, specific amino acid sequence that acts as a recognition signal for the host enzyme furin to cut and activate the protein. 

Days later, several of those same scientists published a prominent paper declaring it was “not a laboratory construct,” language Paul called “adamant language you rarely see in a scientific article, political type of language, PR type of language."

One author later received an $8 million grant approved by Fauci, Paul said. Fauci then cited the paper in White House briefings as independent evidence against a lab leak, despite having helped commission and edit it.

“It’s a big circle, but it’s all around Anthony Fauci,” Paul said.

Two of Fauci's underlings indicted

Encouraging developments, Paul said, include federal indictments of two Fauci lieutenants: David Morens, accused of destroying records and acting as Fauci’s intermediary, and Vincent Munster, a virologist, charged in connection with importing dangerous pathogens into the country without a permit, claiming they were "diagnostic equipment". 

Both were involved in research grants that proposed creating viruses with features similar to SARS-CoV-2.

Paul added that Morens and Munster might be willing to flip on the government's former top pandemic doctor and testify if offered leniency on their terms.

“My goodness, it would be worth it to see one or two of his lieutenants give up testimony that they would not have given up otherwise, but now that they've been indicted, might be inclined to tell the truth," Paul said. 

Amanda Head is White House Correspondent for Just The News. You can find her here. 

Katherine Pugh is a reporter for Just the News. Follow her on X for more coverage.