Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul says his investigators pulled Anthony Fauci's scheduling logs and found something the retired doctor probably hoped would stay buried: his own assistant, in writing, boasting about a weekend document purge. "I was able to destroy tons of your emails this weekend," the aide wrote, according to Paul. Under the Federal Records Act, that's a federal crime.
Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times during his July 29 appearance before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. The man who spent five years lecturing America about "following the science" couldn't manage to follow a single question without his lawyer.
Paul, an ophthalmologic surgeon by training and the senator most responsible for dragging Fauci's gain-of-function funding into public view, told Just The News that more is coming. "We will have some more explosive information that comes out in the next week," he said, adding that the scope of concealed research is wider than previously known.
The Kentucky Republican's most striking claim involves classification. "It is our belief that most of the gain-of-function research that's going on... is classified," Paul said. That's not a procedural footnote. It means the experiments Congress has been asking about for years — the ones Fauci swore under oath weren't gain-of-function — may have been shielded from oversight by hiding them behind security clearances most lawmakers can't access.
Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton, R-Ark., has reportedly been working alongside Paul on the classified side of this investigation. "There's an internal fight in Congress," Paul acknowledged, describing a tug-of-war between members who want every document public and those who say national security demands some stay sealed.
Paul isn't buying the national security argument as a blanket excuse. "There are certain experiments where you're creating viruses that are more transmissible through the air that are a death wish," he said. "There has to be adults in the room." The implication is plain: classification isn't protecting national security — it's protecting the people who approved the research.
Fauci, for his part, released a statement denying everything. "The accusation being circulated that I influenced the scientists to change their minds... is absolutely false," he said. He called the cover-up allegation "a false accusation" and insisted "the truth is exactly the opposite." This from the man whose aide was caught bragging about shredding his correspondence.
President Biden granted Fauci a pardon before leaving office, which shields him from prosecution but does nothing to stop a congressional referral. The committee attempted to strip Fauci of any immunity deal, but the vote failed to reach the required two-thirds majority. Paul's team is now preparing a referral to the Department of Justice — the same DOJ that will have to decide whether a pardoned man's document destruction warrants a fresh look.
The pattern is familiar by now. Fauci denied funding gain-of-function research. The receipts showed he did. He denied influencing scientists' conclusions about COVID origins. Emails showed coordination. He denied destroying records. His assistant's own words say otherwise.
A pardon covers past crimes. It doesn't cover the ones investigators are still finding.
