Fauci's Lawyers Launch Fund as Probes Multiply
Fauci's Lawyers Launch Fund as Probes Multiply
The News
Lawyers for Dr. Anthony Fauci have launched a public legal defense fund to cover his legal bills as federal and state investigations into his handling of COVID-19 multiply.
The fund "has been established to help pay the costs of the ongoing legal representation of Dr. Fauci," according to its website. Contributions are final and non-refundable, his lawyers said.
Fauci, 85, ran the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 1984 until late 2022. Reuters first reported the fund's launch on August 21.
How the Fund Works
Fauci will not receive any payment or distribution from the fund, his lawyers said. It is structured as a trust with an independent corporate trustee.
Neither Fauci nor his attorneys control how the money is spent or how the fund is managed, according to his legal team. Invoices submitted by his lawyers are to be reviewed by an independent expert adviser.
Once all of Fauci's litigation ends, any money left over goes to charity, his lawyers said.
Timeline
Fauci serves as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Fauci testifies at a public hearing that he was not aware of a conspiracy to evade Freedom of Information Act requests, after emails from senior adviser Dr. David Morens describing such a scheme were released by journalists and lawmakers.
Sen. Rand Paul releases messages in which Fauci instructed aides to delete emails after reading them.
End date of a pardon Fauci holds, which covers conduct from January 1, 2014 through that date.
Fauci declines to answer senators' questions about his diary and other documents. A Senate committee votes to hold him in contempt and sends a criminal referral to federal prosecutors.
Morens, Fauci's senior adviser for 16 years, admits to defrauding the government by destroying records subject to FOIA. He faces up to five years in prison.
The legal defense fund goes public.
Reactions
"Dr. Fauci is facing an unprecedented legal barrage for a retired civil servant, and he deserves a robust defense against these unfounded and frivolous actions," David Schertler, a lawyer representing Fauci, told Reuters. "Dr. Fauci has not done anything wrong, and we are prepared to fight back against this shameful harassment of an honorable man who dedicated his career to saving lives."
Paul, a Kentucky Republican and Fauci's most persistent critic in the Senate, wrote on X: "For years we were told Fauci was the infallible expert who never made a mistake and never lied. Now his lawyers are admitting the legal exposure is so large they need a special fund to handle it. You can't fundraise the truth away."
Paul has argued Fauci should be prosecuted because he allegedly made false statements after January 19, 2025 — conduct the pardon does not cover — on top of the contempt finding. Fox News reported Paul is pressing the Justice Department to prosecute Fauci over his refusals to answer.
What's Next
The Justice Department has not commented on the Senate's criminal referral, and Fauci has not been charged.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has issued a subpoena to Fauci and said he would investigate whether Fauci "personally profited off the COVID 'guidance' he issued." Other state officials have opened their own probes.
Morens awaits sentencing on the federal records charge.
More
The scrutiny centers on Fauci's agency sending money to a laboratory in Wuhan, China, near where the first COVID-19 cases were detected, and on his public statements about that research and the origins of the virus. Senators have obtained hundreds of pages of his diary and pandemic-era emails.
The Epoch Times reported that the diary showed Fauci was told by many virology experts that COVID-19 carried a feature that could signal manipulation by scientists, and that months later he promoted a paper he had secretly assisted which called a lab origin implausible.
On the money: Fauci earned $480,654 in his last year of government service, according to financial data obtained by Open the Books. The transparency group also released a disclosure putting the net worth of Fauci and his wife — chief bioethicist at the National Institutes of Health until 2024 — at $15 million in 2023.
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