Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. And when it comes to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, there’s been plenty of smoke since Joe Biden departed the White House.
Now, new revelations are fanning the flames.
In the final hours of the Biden administration, Fauci’s attorneys were reportedly in active communication with White House officials, urgently lobbying for their client to receive a pre-emptive presidential pardon. The request came as Biden issued a wave of such pardons — a move justified publicly as protection against anticipated politically motivated prosecutions by incoming President Donald Trump.
As originally reported, the bombshell came courtesy of then-outgoing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who made the revelation on her final day in office. Investigative reporter Nick Shirley, who spoke directly with U.S. Pardon Attorney Edward R. Martin, Jr., confirmed that Fauci’s legal team was aggressively pushing for that pardon in the administration’s closing hours.
The disclosure cuts sharply against Fauci’s own public statements. Shortly after Trump’s inauguration, Fauci told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl with confidence: “Let me be perfectly clear, Jon, I have committed no crime, you know that, and there are no possible grounds for any allegation or threat of criminal investigation or prosecution of me.”
That statement is now being viewed in a very different light.
Biden’s pre-emptive pardons were framed at the time as a shield against what Democrats described as Trump’s politically motivated pursuit of his opponents. But the picture that has since emerged tells a different story. Trump’s Justice Department has moved forward with investigations and charges against several former political adversaries — and those charges, by all accounts, involve alleged legitimate criminal conduct, not political retribution.
For Fauci, the implications are significant. A man who publicly insisted he had nothing to hide was, behind the scenes, reportedly desperate for legal protection only a presidential pardon could provide.
The broader consequences of Fauci’s tenure and policy recommendations during the COVID-19 pandemic remain deeply felt across the country. Schools shuttered. Children fell behind academically during months of virtual learning with lasting effects on their development. Patients died in hospitals and nursing homes without family by their side. Businesses were shuttered, graduations canceled, and millions of Americans had their financial lives upended.
The weight of those consequences has never been fully accounted for — and for many Americans, Gabbard’s parting revelations raise a simple but urgent question: what exactly did Anthony Fauci need a pardon for?
That question, it appears, is one that investigators may soon be pressing him to answer.