Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has filed multiple criminal referrals for former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci to the Department of Justice over the geriatric immunologist’s apparent false testimony before Congress in 2021.
According to Paul, the statute of limitations on charging Fauci over his alleged perjury expires on Monday. If it does, the Biden Justice Department will not be alone in having failed to indict the Biden pardonee credibly accused of helping cover up the likely lab origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
How it started
Months after testifying before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, “America’s doctor” was brought back before the same committee on July 20, 2021, to discuss the origin of COVID-19 and U.S. funding ties to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Chinese communist lab that possibly manufactured the virus.
“Dr. Fauci, as you are aware, it is a crime to lie to Congress,” Paul said during the hearing.
“On your last trip to our committee on May 11, you stated that the NIH ‘has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.’ And yet, gain-of-function research was done entirely in the Wuhan Institute by Dr. Shi and was funded by the NIH,” he continued.
Paul cited as evidence a paper from scientists at the WIV, including Ben Hu — a EcoHealth Alliance subcontractor who was among the suspected COVID-19 patients zero — that discussed gain-of-function work on coronaviruses and acknowledged funding from NIAID as well as from the United States Agency for International Development’s Predict program.
RELATED: Former Fauci adviser INDICTED for allegedly hiding emails about the origins of COVID
Feature China/Future Publishing/Getty Images
The paper describes research both conducted at the Wuhan lab and funded under an NIAID award where genetic information from different SARS-related coronaviruses were combined and fashioned into new artificial viruses capable of infecting human cells.
“Viruses that in nature only infect animals were manipulated in the Wuhan lab to gain the function of infecting humans,” said Paul. “This research fits the definition of the research that the NIH said was subject to the pause in 2014 to 2017 — a pause in funding on gain-of-function.”
Fauci declined to retract his previous statement that “the NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”
In addition to telling Paul that he “never lied before the Congress,” Fauci claimed that the experimentation referenced in the paper did not constitute gain-of-function.
“Senator Paul, you do not know what you are talking about, quite frankly,” added Fauci. “And I want to say that officially.”
How it’s ending
Paul raised the alarm earlier this month that “on May 11th, the statute of limitations expires on the possibility of indicting Anthony Fauci for denying under oath that he funded gain-of-function research involving bat coronaviruses in Wuhan, the origin city of the pandemic.”
There is a five-year statute of limitations on lying to Congress. It’s unclear, however, whether May 11 is the deadline to indict Fauci as he reiterated on July 20 that he did not want to amend or retract his statement.
The DOJ did not respond to Blaze News’ request for comment.
The Kentucky senator has counted down the days since, emphasizing that “the American people want Fauci behind bars” — and still, there’s been no indictment from the Justice Department.
On Monday, Paul tweeted, “Today is the deadline to charge Fauci, or he walks away from one of the biggest cover-ups in American history without ever facing a jury.”
While Fauci received a “full and unconditional” pardon in former President Joe Biden’s name for possible federal crimes going back to 2014, the Trump DOJ has expressed doubt about the pardon’s validity.
U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin, for instance, said late last year that his “office cannot support the validity of AutoPen pardons for individuals such as Anthony Fauci, Adam Schiff, Mark Milley, and many more without further examination and fact-finding.”
“In my tenure here, I have not seen any evidence supporting the theory that President Biden was personally aware and authorized these AutoPen’d pardons,” added Martin.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Anthony fauci, Bat coronaviruses, Biden justice department, Chinese communist lab, Congress, Criminal referrals, Department of justice, Ecohealth alliance, False testimony, Gainoffunction research, Infecting humans, Lab origins, Lying to congress, Nih funding, Senator rand paul, Virology, Wuhan institute, Politics
