President Autopen’s pardon was supposed to be Anthony Fauci’s escape hatch. Former Fox News star Bill O’Reilly thinks it’s actually the starting gun. He thinks Fauci’s legal nightmares are just beginning:
O’REILLY: “Now Fauci has got a pardon from the Biden people, you know that.”
“But the states of Louisiana and Florida are starting to investigate him.”
“I don’t know what for, it’s just beginning, but the attorneys general in those states, they’re looking to get him.”
“And then other red states will join and they’ll try to nail him on a state level, on damage done to the individual states.”
“So Fauci is going to be in court for the next five years.”
“The feds can’t get him because of the pardon, but the states, if they can prove that Fauci committed a state crime, they can get him.”
“Now, Fauci’s gotta be funded. He can’t pay the bills, his legal bills on that.”
“So he’ll go into the progressive movement…”
“You know, Soros will pick up the tab or somebody like that.”
Bill O’Reilly just made one of the boldest predictions yet about Anthony Fauci: He’s going to be “in court for the next five years.”
O’Reilly says Fauci may have escaped federal prosecution with the pardon from Biden…but the real legal battle is only just beginning.
O’REILLY:… pic.twitter.com/pge6Y81fXM
— Overton (@overton_news) August 4, 2026
Here’s the map O’Reilly is reading. The feds are blocked by the pardon, assuming it’s valid — which is itself a contested question given the autopen circumstances. But every state attorney general operates independently of the federal pardon power. If Fauci’s pandemic decisions caused documented harm to citizens of a particular state — if his guidance produced measurable damage that can be tied to specific conduct — state prosecutors can pursue it regardless of what Biden signed in his final hours.
Florida AG James Uthmeier made the announcement explicitly. His office is investigating Fauci, full stop. The pardon is irrelevant to state charges. Louisiana’s AG is reportedly moving in a similar direction. And as O’Reilly notes, once Florida and Louisiana establish the legal framework, other red states will have both the roadmap and the political motivation to follow.
The contempt of Congress angle adds another layer. Rand Paul’s committee voted Thursday on a contempt resolution — the argument being that Biden’s pardon removed Fauci’s Fifth Amendment protection for pre-2025 conduct, making his 111 invocations legally unjustified and therefore contemptuous. If the DOJ under Todd Blanche pursues that referral, Fauci faces federal prosecution for the contempt itself — conduct that occurred after the pardon was issued and is therefore not covered by it.
Then there’s the opening statement problem that Catherine Herridge flagged — the same Lois Lerner issue. By voluntarily addressing his pandemic record in prepared remarks, Fauci may have partially waived Fifth Amendment protection for those subjects. That legal argument hasn’t been tested yet. It will be.
O’Reilly’s funding prediction is equally plausible. Progressive legal defense funds have unlimited resources and a track record of deploying them for political allies. Fauci’s legal bills across five years of multi-state litigation, contempt proceedings, and federal challenges to the pardon’s validity would be staggering. George Soros or equivalent progressive mega-donors picking up the tab is the most likely outcome.
Here’s what all of this means practically: Fauci thought the pardon ended the story. It may have only changed the venue. The federal window is largely closed. Every state window is open. And a man who spent four years telling Americans that he was the embodiment of science itself is about to spend the next five years explaining his conduct in courtrooms across the country.
The process is the punishment — and the process is just beginning.
