On Monday, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., issued subpoenas to fourteen agencies from the outgoing Biden-Harris administration regarding their knowledge of COVID-19’s origins and “taxpayer-funded gain-of-function research,” according to a report.
In a press release announcing the subpoenas, Paul, now Chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, indicated that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who received a preemptive pardon from former President Joe Biden, would be called to testify before Congress.
“In the wake of Anthony Fauci’s preemptive pardon, there are still questions to be answered,” said Paul. “Who at NIH directed funds to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and why was the proposal not scrutinized by the P3CO safety committee? For four years, I have requested records from the NIH and other agencies on all deliberations regarding the decision to skip oversight by the safety committee only to be stonewalled.”
“Today,” he added, “I’m announcing subpoenas were sent from the Committee to NIH and 13 other agencies regarding their involvement in risky gain-of-function research. The goal of the investigation will be to critique the process that allowed this dangerous research, that may have led to the pandemic, to occur in a foreign country under unsafe protocols and to ensure that there is sufficient oversight and review going forward, making sure a mistake of this magnitude never happens again.”
According to Kimberly Wehle, a law professor at the University of Baltimore, Fauci’s acceptance of Biden’s preemptive pardon means he may not be able to invoke the Fifth Amendment if called to testify before Congress. “The pardons do not impact the Fifth Amendment right to self-incrimination unless they are accepted by the recipient, and there is no legal deadline for doing so,” she told Newsweek.
“If there is an acceptance of a pardon and the recipient is called to testify, it is accurate that they cannot successfully invoke the Fifth Amendment on matters covered by the pardon because there would be no threat of incrimination,” Wehle continued. “If they refuse to testify, they could be held in contempt, but as we saw when Trump witnesses refused to testify in the January 6th matter, that is a laborious process and not as easy to execute as contempt by a judge, although I assume Pam Bondi would not hesitate to prosecute.”
In May 2021, Fauci told Paul while testifying before Congress that “the NIH and NIAID categorically has not funded gain-of-function research to be conducted in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.” On January 27, 2020, Fauci received an email notifying him that he had been approving funding for such research for five years, however.
“NIAID has funded Peter [Daszak]’s group,” EcoHealth Alliance, “for coronavirus work in China for the past 5 years through R01 1R01AI110964: “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence,” the email read. Biden’s pardon covers Fauci’s actions back to Jan. 1, 2014.
