Fauci Fires Back at Sen. Rand Paul: ‘Go Ahead’ and Investigate

(L) Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and (R) Dr. Anthony Fauci at a Senate hearing on the federal response to COVID-19, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Sept. 23, 2020. (L: Alex Edelman R: Graeme Jennings/Pool via Reuters)

White House COVID-19 adviser Anthony Fauci said Tuesday that he welcomes a Republican-led investigation into his records, claiming they are an “open book.”

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) told The Hill on Monday that if the GOP takes over the House or Senate after the 2022 midterms, Fauci could be investigated when Republicans take control of committees. Some Republicans including Paul have said that Fauci has been publicly misleading on the origins of COVID-19 and have also accused him of supporting mandates that they have described as draconian.

“One way or another, if we are in the majority, we will subpoena his records and he will testify in the Senate under oath,” Paul said.

In response to Paul’s statement, CNN’s John Berman asked Fauci on Tuesday morning: “Your reaction to Rand Paul and others saying they’re going to investigate you if they take office?”

Fauci initially said that “there’s no reason to do that” but stressed that “if they want to, go ahead.” He added, “My records are an open book. They are talking about things that are really bizarre, John, like crimes against democracy by shutting down the government.”

“All I have ever done, and go back and look at everything I’ve ever done, was to recommend commonsense, good, CDC-recommended public health policies that have saved millions of lives. If you want to investigate me for that, go ahead,” Fauci said.

Namely, Paul and other Republicans have questioned Fauci over the origins of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus that causes COVID-19 and the gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. Last year, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Fauci’s parent organization, ultimately conceded that it provided funding to third-party groups to perform gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan lab

‘Open Book’

The Epoch Times for months has tried to obtain several of Fauci’s records via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, including his employment contract. According to watchdog OpenTheBooks.com, Fauci is among the highest-paid government employees.

“You requested Dr. Anthony Fauci’s job contract(s) and job description(s). NIH has processed 5 pages related to Dr. Fauci’s current job description, consisting of the most recent director of NIAID duties statement and NIAID director functional statement. Please note that since 2000, Dr. Fauci is appointed under Title 42, where there is a ‘statement of duties’ versus a ‘position description,'” NIH spokesperson Gorka Garcia-Malene told The Epoch Times in April about a request for his contracts of employment.

At the time, OpenTheBooks.com founder and CEO Adam Andrzejewski described Fauci as “untouchable,” “protected,” and “essentially unreviewable even by his own employer,” the NIH.

“The Fauci employment contract is so sensitive that the agency is violating FOIA statutes and using expensive taxpayer-funded litigation to withhold it from the American people,” he said in April.

Months before that, two of Fauci’s most recent financial disclosures for 2019 and 2020 were made publicly available by Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), showing the longtime federal employee has a net worth in the millions of dollars range.

Those records also showed that Fauci invested in large Chinese regime-backed companies that advance Beijing’s interests and benefit from state policies, including companies like Tencent Holdings, Alibaba Group Holdings, Hong Kong Exchange and Clearing Ltd., and WuXi Biologics Cayman.

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.