Citing Dr. Anthony Fauci’s “lack of candor to Congress,” Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said on July 29 that his office is opening an investigation to “get the truth of what happened” while Fauci served as a top federal health official during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Uthmeier made the announcement via a post on X, calling Fauci’s refusal to answer questions that morning by invoking the Fifth Amendment numerous times “unbelievable.”
His remarks came shortly after Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) asked him and other state officials to act.
“I am calling on the great Attorneys General and Governors of FL, TX, WV, and AR to bring charges against Fauci for crimes against children in exposing them to a vaccine that has now been PROVEN to hurt people,” Luna wrote on X.
“There is NO JUSTICE unless he is held responsible for the crimes HE committed against HUMANITY.”
Luna did not explain why she called upon just those four states to act.
She and Uthmeier were reacting to Fauci’s refusal to answer questions that senators posed during a Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs hearing over Fauci’s conduct during the pandemic.
However, Luna, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), and others said they believe President Joe Biden’s preemptive pardon of Fauci on Jan. 20, 2025, made him ineligible for that protection. The pardon shields Fauci from prosecution for any federal offenses from 2014 to 2025.
Luna’s post stated that the pardon “does not hold against state prosecution and civil lawsuits.”
The office of Fauci’s lawyer, David Schertler, told The Epoch Times on July 29: “We do not have any comment at this time.”
Meanwhile, the leader of a coalition of 17 state attorneys general pledged to continue its examination of Fauci, which began last year.
South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson heads the group that asked Congress to “provide them with any relevant findings that could lead to state investigations and potential prosecutions,” a 2025 news release said.
Asked for an update on that work, a spokesman for Wilson told The Epoch Times he could not comment beyond Wilson’s statement released on X shortly after Fauci’s testimony concluded on July 29.
Noting that Fauci had declined to answer queries, Wilson wrote, “The American people also have a right to transparency and accountability from the public officials whose decisions affected millions of lives. We will continue pursuing the truth because the American people deserve nothing less.”
Ohio legal analyst Mike Allen, a current defense lawyer and former prosecutor, said that attempts to prosecute Fauci for state offenses would likely be long shots.
It’s difficult to say what possible state charges might be considered, since laws among the 50 states vary widely, Allen told The Epoch Times. But he said the time limit for prosecuting many offenses has likely expired, considering that Fauci’s pandemic-related actions date to 2020 or possibly earlier.
“Prosecutors can get creative. But ... they have to do this in good faith as state officials,” he said.
Asked about Fauci’s refusal to answer yes-or-no questions, Allen said he had never seen a person who invokes the Fifth Amendment balk at “mundane” questions.
As a citizen, Allen said he was critical of some of Fauci’s documented conduct, including making public statements that contradicted his recently released diary entries.
However, he said refusing to answer questions based on Fifth Amendment protections—even if they arguably may not apply to a pardoned person—was probably Fauci’s best course of action.
“I think, from a legal perspective, it’s a good strategy,” he said. “I would have done the same thing” if Fauci were his client.
