Story at a glance:
- Sen. Rand Paul referred Anthony Fauci to the Justice Department for allegedly lying to Congress.
- The referral questions whether Fauci funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology as the head of the National Institutes of Health.
- The referral, which requests an investigation, can be denied by Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) made good on his threat to refer Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Biden and director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, to the Justice Department for allegedly lying to Congress about funding gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
As Changing America previously reported, Fauci said that the National Institutes of Health “has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology” in response to Paul’s unsubstantiated claims to the contrary during a May hearing.
Last Tuesday, Paul asked Fauci if he would like to retract a previous statement, saying “as you are aware it is a crime to lie to Congress.”
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Fauci said he would not retract the statement and was adamant that he has never lied before Congress.
“You do not know what you’re talking about, quite frankly, and I want to say that officially. You do not know what you’re talking about…If anybody is lying here, senator, it is you,” Fauci said.
The following Wednesday, reported The Washington Examiner, the Kentucky senator officially sent a request to Attorney General Merrick Garland to open a criminal investigation of Fauci’s statement.
“I write to urge the United States Department of Justice to open an investigation into testimony made to the United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions by Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, on May 11, 2021,” Paul wrote in the referral obtained byThe Examiner.
According to The Examiner, Paul also informed Garland of comments made by molecular biologist Richard Ebright, who said in May that research conducted by the Wuhan lab “matches, indeed, epitomizes the definition of ‘gain-of-function research of concern’ for which federal funding was ‘paused’ in 2014-2017.”
“He’s lying about whether or not he funded gain-of-function research, and yes, he should be punished,” Paul told Fox News on Saturday.
Garland can approve or deny the referral, which only requests the investigation.
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