Anthony Fauci used an iPhone from 2014 until he left the NIH in December 2022. Eight years. Thousands of communications. A pandemic that reshaped the entire world.
And three contacts stored in the phone.
Senator Ron Johnson appeared on NewsNation Friday night to share the initial findings from his subcommittee’s examination of the data: over 34,000 texts and 522 voicemail messages recovered from Fauci’s COVID-era device. But the detail that stopped everyone cold was this: “He only had three contacts, which is pretty odd.”
redstate
Three contacts. Eight years. Thirty-four thousand texts — the overwhelming majority linked only to phone numbers with no associated names.
There are two explanations for this, and neither is good. Either Fauci was systematically avoiding storing the identities of the people he was communicating with — a deliberate practice to obscure who he was talking to and about what — or contacts were deleted before the device was handed over for investigation. Both scenarios point in the same direction: a man who knew his communications were potentially damaging and took steps to make them harder to trace.
Johnson was careful about what he could reveal publicly. “This is not going to be a document dump,” he told Catherine Herridge. “I also need to preserve documents for our investigation. We are interviewing other people that he may be texting. And if you’re going to get truthful answers out of people, you can’t necessarily show them all your investigatory material.”
EXCLUSIVE: THOUSANDS OF TEXTS RECOVERED FROM COPY OF DR. ANTHONY FAUCI'S PHONE SAYS @SenRonJohnson
New reporting @KatiePavlichNN from the Wisconsin Senator whose investigations subcommittee obtained the data.
More tonight at 10PM eastern @NewsNation when I fill in for… pic.twitter.com/eNq8KuqvQa
— Catherine Herridge (@C__Herridge) August 7, 2026
"There's a lot of information on there. Over 34,000 texts, I think 522 voicemail messages… there's a lot to go through."
WATCH: @SenRonJohnson joins @C__Herridge to share his initial findings after he received a copy of the data from Dr. Anthony Fauci's COVID-era cell phone. pic.twitter.com/JIRe6Zjs4N
— Katie Pavlich Tonight (@KatiePavlichNN) August 8, 2026
He confirmed his intention to work closely with Rand Paul and his staff to release findings jointly — which is the right approach. Coordinated, deliberate release of significant findings is considerably more effective than a scattered document dump that allows the media to cherry-pick isolated texts for favorable framing.
Here’s the context that makes the three-contact finding so explosive. Fauci’s diary documented his instructions to Collins to delete a sensitive email about COVID origins. His communications with David Morens — who is now indicted on multiple federal charges including destruction of federal records — deliberately used personal accounts to evade FOIA. His opening statement to the Senate committee touched on COVID origins and gain-of-function research before he invoked the Fifth Amendment 111 times on the same subjects.
A man whose pandemic communications showed systematic avoidance of official channels also stored three contacts in eight years of iPhone use. Either he has the most extraordinary recall for phone numbers of anyone in federal government history, or something has been removed.
Johnson said it precisely: “I can’t and my staff can’t guarantee that everything was preserved.”
Thirty-four thousand texts. Five hundred twenty-two voicemails. Three contacts.
The investigators are interviewing the people on the other end of those number-only texts. They are not showing their hand yet. They are building a case.
The contempt referral is with the DOJ. The phone data is with Johnson and Paul. Florida’s state investigation is active.
There was nothing to hide, Fauci said. Three contacts would suggest otherwise.
