Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., wants the top prosecutor in Washington, D.C., to investigate Dr. Anthony Fauci for allegedly lying under oath about COVID-19 origins and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding gain-of-function research.
Paul sent a letter to U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves on Tuesday, demanding a probe of Fauci for allegedly committing perjury during a congressional hearing in 2021 when Fauci said COVID-19 did not come from a Chinese lab.
Previously, in July 2021, Paul had sent a criminal referral to President Joe Biden's Justice Department (DOJ) alleging that Fauci lied to Congress about gain-of-function research.
"Because of the DOJ's inaction regarding Fauci's lies to congress, I've now sent a criminal referral to D.C. U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves. I'm demanding an investigation. Read the full letter here: http://sen.gov/1J8Q," Paul said on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Tuesday.
Paul accused Fauci, the former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), of lying about the NIH funding gain-of-function research at Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).
"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 to his colleagues. His own colleagues have acknowledged Dr. Fauci's inconsistency," Paul wrote to Graves.
"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."
In July Paul submitted an "official criminal referral" to the DOJ over testimony Fauci gave about the coronavirus and whether it came from a lab in Wuhan, China.
The DOJ never responded to Paul's request, an aide to the senator told DailyMail.com.
Paul told Graves that Fauci, in a hearing on May 11, 2021, testified that "the NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain-of function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology."
However, Paul cited a Feb. 1, 2020 email in which Fauci acknowledged concerns that COVID-19 may have been genetically engineered because gain-of-function research was taking place in Wuhan before the pandemic.
"[S]cientists 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," Fauci wrote in the email.
Fauci also wrote that "in a report published on June 14, 2023, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) concluded the Wuhan Institute of Virology and Wuhan University received NIH funding."
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