Republicans on Capitol Hill are moving quickly to issue a criminal referral against Dr. Anthony Fauci, alleging he benefited from a scheme to bypass former President Joe Biden and secure a pardon using the White House autopen.
Leading the effort is Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who announced Monday that he is referring Fauci to Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Department of Justice following a recent revelation that Fauci’s pardon was executed with the autopen rather than Biden’s direct signature.
The disclosure surfaced during a New York Times investigation into the final weeks of the Biden administration. The report revealed that then-White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients approved a series of last-minute pardons, including for Fauci and members of the January 6 Select Committee, such as former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY).
“I approve the use of the autopen for the execution of all of the following pardons,” Zients wrote in an email shortly after a summarized list of pardons was apparently presented to Biden for approval.
President Donald Trump has urged Republicans to investigate whether pardons signed using an autopen can be deemed invalid. While the device—designed to replicate a person’s signature—is typically reserved for routine documents like constituent letters or ceremonial proclamations, it was used extensively after President Biden ended his reelection bid amid growing concerns over his mental fitness.
The situation has given Republicans a prime opportunity to investigate Dr. Anthony Fauci, former Rep. Liz Cheney, and members of the Biden family who received pardons on Biden’s final day in office. Trump, in particular, has pledged to pursue legal action against Fauci over the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and against Cheney for her role on the January 6 Committee, which held Trump responsible for the Capitol riots on January 6, 2021.
Biden spoke with The New York Times for its report, highlighting how defensive he and his aides have become in trying to control the damaging narrative surrounding his presidency. He acknowledged that he “did not individually approve” each pardon, but claimed he only delegated review of low-level criminal cases, not the high-profile pardons that have drawn the most scrutiny.
“Rather than ask Biden to keep signing revised versions, his staff waited and then ran the final version through the autopen, which they saw as…routine,” the story states about the Biden White House’s processes for obtaining his approval during the pardon process.
Among other allegations, Republicans have accused Fauci of concealing evidence that a bioengineered coronavirus leaked from the Wuhan lab in China, triggering the global pandemic in 2020. They have also pointed to internal emails from National Institutes of Health staff under Fauci’s leadership, in which employees allegedly discussed strategies to evade compliance with public records laws.
