Last week, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul asked the Justice Department to criminally investigate former National Institute of Allergy and Infection Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci for lying to Congress when he claimed in sworn testimony that the National Institutes of Health never funded for gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Washington Examiner reported.
In his criminal referral, Senator Paul cites Fauci’s sworn testimony to Congress on May 11, 2021, after the senator pointed to the NIH grants to EcoHealth Alliance that went to the Wuhan lab which, according to a Trump-era State Department fact sheet, carried out gain-of-function experiments. At the time, Fauci flatly denied that the NIH ever funded such research at the Wuhan lab.
After another round of contentious questioning on July 20 in which Fauci repeatedly said that the NIH funding that went to the Wuhan lab was not for gain-of-function research, Senator Paul revealed on Fox News that he planned to send a letter to the Justice Department over Dr. Fauci’s false testimony.
Senator Paul told host Sean Hannity that he has dozens of scientists who will say that the research funded by the NIH at the Wuhan lab was gain-of-function research and accused Dr. Fauci of trying to “cover his tracks” and “his connection” to the Wuhan lab.
In his July 26 letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Senator Paul urged the Justice Department to open an investigation into whether Fauci lied in his testimony from May 11, 2021.
Paul noted in his letter a 2017 paper on “bat lady” Shi Zhengli’s experiments at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which cited an award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infection Diseases, that included gain-of-function research on SARS-related COVID strains.
Senator Paul told Attorney General Garland that contrary to Fauci’s assertions, the research cited in the paper “fits the definition of gain-of-function research” and was conducted at the Wuhan lab and funded by the NIAID.
