President Joe Biden on Monday pardoned Dr. Anthony Fauci in an extraordinary use of the powers of the presidency in his final hours.
Biden said the preemptive move was to guard against potential “revenge” by the incoming Trump administration. Fauci have never been charged with a crime. Yet, the “full and unconditional” pardon covers the period extending back to Jan. 1, 2014.
Fauci was director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health for nearly 40 years, including during President Donald Trump's first term in office, and later served as Biden’s chief medical adviser until retirement in 2022.
Fauci helped coordinate the nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Despite the accomplishments that my colleagues and I achieved over my long career of public service, I have been the subject of politically motivated threats of investigation and prosecution. There is absolutely no basis for these threats. Let me be perfectly clear: I have committed no crime,” Fauci said in a statement.
“Throughout my career, I have been motivated by one simple goal: to improve the health and lives of humankind," he added, noting that he served under presidents of both parties from Ronald Reagan to President Biden.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, has accused Fauci of mismanaging the pandemic and lying to Congress, specifically that Fauci covered up that the virus’ origin was linked to research funded by NIH at a lab in Wuhan, China. Fauci has denied the claims, but he and Paul have clashed during multiple Fauci appearances before Senate panels.
NPR: Biden pardons Fauci, Milley and members of Jan. 6 panel
With Republicans become the Senate's majority party, Paul recentlyy became chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. He said the committee would continue to investigate Fauci and other aspects of COVID.
"If there was ever any doubt as to who bears responsibility for the COVID pandemic, Biden’s pardon of Fauci forever seals the deal. As chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, I will not rest until the entire truth of the coverup is exposed," Paul wrote on X. "Fauci’s pardon will only serve as an accelerant to pierce the veil of deception."
Biden also preemptively pardoned retired Gen. Mark Milley; and members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. In the minutes before Donald Trump took the oath to return to the White House, Biden also preemptively pardoned his siblings and their spouses.
“The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that any individual engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense,” Biden said in a statement.
Biden, a Democrat, has used the power in the broadest and most untested way possible: to pardon those who have not even been investigated. His decision lays the groundwork for an even more expansive use of pardons by future presidents.
Information from the Associated Press and Health News Florida's Rick Mayer was used in this report.
