Attorneys general from 17 states are preparing to take legal action against Dr. Anthony Fauci for his conduct during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a February 5 letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), the state AGs offered their cooperation in further investigations of the nation’s response to COVID-19 and reminded them former President Biden’s pardon of Fauci “does not preclude state-level investigations or legal proceedings”
The AGs’ letter follows a December 24, 2024, House select subcommittee report on the federal government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. That report strongly criticized Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases during the pandemic, a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, and Chief Medical Advisor to the President, and other federal officials and agencies.
“As part of your continuing efforts in holding malign actors accountable for their actions arising out of the Pandemic, if you believe that further findings or direct evidence that suggest there may have been any violation of state laws, please include us in any actions taken so that we may be able to evaluate state-level courses of action,” the AGs wrote. “Although former President Biden attempted to shield potential bad actors—like Dr. Anthony Fauci—from accountability via preemptive pardons, we are confident that state laws may provide a means to hold all actors accountable for their misconduct.”
Former President Joe Biden signed a preemptive federal pardon for Fauci moments before Donald Trump was sworn into office as president on January 20.
Allegations of Misinformation
The AGs’ letter notes the House report found Fauci promoted a theory on the origin of COVID-19 that discredited the “lab leak” explanation for how the virus emerged in Wuhan, China.
“As we all know, and as the report found, the weight of the evidence increasingly supports the lab leak hypothesis, and Dr. Fauci’s potential involvement in attempting to discredit that hypothesis is troubling,” the AGs wrote. “Any deliberate manipulation or suppression of alternative hypotheses could have delayed understanding of and responses to the pandemic, with dire consequences for global health.”
Citing the Subcommittee’s report, the AGs pointed out that during a Senate hearing, Fauci denied three times that U.S. tax dollars went to the Wuhan Institute of Virology for gain-of-function research. Evidence later emerged that this was not true, and National Institutes of Health (NIH) payments were, in fact, made through EcoHealth Alliance.
“This discrepancy not only raises questions about the integrity of his testimony but also about the broader implications for scientific integrity and public trust,” wrote the AGs. “The possibility of perjury or at least a significant lack of transparency demands attention.”
Dereliction of Duty?
Fauci had a duty to provide oversight of the NIH payments and to make sure policies were transparent and trustworthy, the AGs state.
“This subsequently siloed crucial information from the public that may have led to more public awareness concerning the risks of myocarditis and pericarditis among young adult males; the verified increased risk of blood clots in women; and the long-term effects the vaccines had on fertility,” wrote the AGs. “The notion of ‘trusting the science’ was not only grotesquely false, but was the very definition of propaganda that contributed to serious vaccine injuries—and in some cases, death.”
Claim of Authority
Noting Biden’s pre-emptive pardon – extending from January 1, 2014, through January 17, 2025 – the AGs believe that one tool at their disposal is Fauci’s obligation to present “pertinent findings” to state officials.
Biden’s pardon does not apply to breaches of state laws, the AGs wrote.
“As state Attorneys General, we possess the authority to address violations of state law or breaches of public trust,” the letter states.
The AGs asked Johnson and Thune to provide them with any necessary details from the subcommittee’s report that could provide an outline for potential state legal action if warranted.
‘Crimes Against Humanity’
A strong case can be made against Fauci and others in the government at the time, says Peter A. McCullough, M.D., MPH, author of Courage to Face COVID-19: Preventing Hospitalization and Death While Battling the Bio-Pharmaceutical Complex.
“Two papers, each with V.D. Menachery as the lead author, describing the creation of primordial SARS-CoV-2 by a joint U.S.-Chinese team in the Wuhan Institute of Virology tie together the key perpetrators of crimes against humanity,” McCullough told Health Care News. “Dr. Ralph Baric, Dr. Peter Daszak, and Dr. Anthony Fauci all played critical roles in the research that led both to the design of the virus and the code for the spike protein used by Moderna and Pfizer for the development of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.”
The code for the virus is a key to the group’s motives, says McCullough.
“Baric, Daszak, and Fauci all refuse to publicly release the code for their ‘SARS-like WIV1 Poised for Human Emergence’ designated virus [developed] using taxpayer dollars,” said McCullough. “Likely it closely matches the original wild type SARS-CoV-2 that emanated from [the Wuhan Institute of Virology] in late 2019. Let’s hope that the code is released and there is a proper investigation of both the conspiracy to create the global threat as well as its cover-up.”
Uphill Battle
Although “Fauci contradicted himself repeatedly,” state AGs contemplating action against him face a difficult task, says Merrill Mathews, Ph.D., a resident scholar at the Institute for Policy Innovation.
“Fauci was, in my opinion, clearly guilty of hubris and doling out misinformation,” said Matthews. “And while I’m not a lawyer, given the lack of clear cause-and-effect and the divergent opinions of so many ‘experts’ at the time, I think it would be hard to prove intentional or criminal intent in court.”
Bonner Russell Cohen, Ph.D., ([email protected]) is a senior fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research.
Bonner R. Cohen is a senior fellow with the National Center for Public Policy Research, a position he has held since 2002.
