Rand Paul: I’m Making ‘Criminal Referral’ To DOJ For Anthony Fauci Because ‘He Has Lied To Congress’

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul said he will ask the Department of Justice (DoJ) for a criminal investigation of Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the chief medical advisor to the president, for allegedly lying to Congress

On Tuesday night, Sean Hannity interviewed Paul and emphasized the statement of the Republican lawmaker to Fauci during a recent hearing that under federal law, lying to Congress is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

“Is it your belief based on the evidence, senator, that he lied before Congress and broke the law?” Hannity continued.

“Yes,” Paul answered. “And I will be sending a letter to the Department of Justice asking for a criminal referral because he has lied to Congress. We have scientists that were lined up by the dozens to say that the research he was funding was gain-of-function.”

“He’s doing this because he has a self interest to cover his tracks and to cover his connection to Wuhan lab,” the Republican lawmaker added.

Paul’s comments come after the two had an intense exchange during a Senate hearing, in which Fauci seemed to be physically trembling with rage.

“Dr. Fauci, knowing that it is a crime to lie to Congress, do you wish to retract your statement of May 11, where you claimed that the NIH never funded gains-of-function research in Wuhan?” Paul asked the NIAID director at one point in the hearing. 

Paul made the remark after citing a paper on the research about bat coronaviruses, where he quoted Dr. Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University, said that “research matches, indeed epitomizes the definition of gain-of-function research.”

To which, Fauci responded that he has only made truthful comments to Congress.

“I have never lied before the Congress, and I do not retract that statement,” Fauci said.

FactCheck.org, which has tackled the funding controversy in the past, previously noted that the answer to whether or not NIH funding was directed to the Wuhan lab and used to further gain-of-function research “depends on whom you ask and their definition of gain-of-function.”

The said funding claim is based on a six-figure donation from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to a group named EcoHealth Alliance, which in turn transferred funds to a Wuhan Institute of Virology project.

Paul noted that in his Senate explanations, Fauci was “dancing around” the definition of gain-of-function research because he’s “trying to obscure responsibility for 4 million people dying around the world from a pandemic.”

Later on, with Hannity, Paul said Fauci doesn’t deserve all the “blame” for the Covid-19 pandemic but he emphasized that “he’s lying about whether or not he funded gain-of-function research.”

“Yes, he should be punished,” he added.

The heated exchange between Fauci and Paul was described by Josh Rogin, a columnist for The Washington Post, who said on Twitter: “Hey guys, @RandPaul was right and Fauci was wrong. The NIH was funding gain of function research in Wuhan but NIH pretended it didn’t meet their ‘gain of function’ definition to avoid their own oversight mechanism. SorryNotSorry if that doesn’t fit your favorite narrative.”

Watch the explosive exchange between Paul and Fauci here:

Three GOP senators have already earlier demanded that Fauci be fired for his “politicized statements” — for “distorting the truth” and “outright lying to Congress.”

Senators Marsha Blackburn (Tennessee), Marco Rubio (Florida), and Tom Cotton (Arkansas) all said in individual remarks to Fox News that Fauci’s resignation in his role as a top health official in the Biden administration is essential to restore public trust in the federal government’s health guidelines.