Armed with thousands of pages of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s private pandemic diaries, Senate Republicans are gearing up for a Wednesday hearing that could be unlike any of their previous clashes with the former infectious disease chief.
Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, will square off with committee Chairman Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who has made scrutinizing Fauci and the federal government’s response to Covid-19 one of his signature issues.
But this time, Paul has a new weapon: a treasure trove of diary entries from Fauci, documenting the infectious disease director’s day-to-day life throughout the course of the pandemic. (Fauci has not verified that the diary entries are correct, but he also has not disputed their authenticity.)
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said during an appearance on Fox News that he gave the entries to Paul and his Republican colleague Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin in the lead up to the hearing.
And Johnson told MS NOW that Fauci will have to be “very careful” about what he says during his testimony.
“Now we have documents. We have only begun going through them,” Johnson said.
While Joe Biden issued a preemptive pardon to Fauci at the end of his presidency, citing concerns about “unjustified and politically motivated prosecutions” by the incoming Trump administration, that pardon would not shield Fauci from any alleged crimes committed after it was issued — including perjury before Congress.
Republicans have made it clear they view Wednesday’s hearing through that lens.
On Monday, Paul made the threat explicitly.
“If Anthony Fauci lies before Congress on Wednesday, as he did in previous hearings, his preemptive pardon won’t cover him,” Paul wrote.
Whether the Justice Department would pursue such a case is unknown. But Republicans are already pointing to Fauci’s diaries as material they intend to use during the hearing.
In particular, Republicans have seized on several diary entries about the origins of Covid-19.
In one entry, dated Jan. 26, 2020, Fauci writes that the first Covid infection was “in early December and was not connected to the market.”
“Now we know the market was not the source, it was the amplifier,” Fauci wrote.
On social media, Paul annotated that entry. “That is January of 2020. The wet market was already off the table in his own private notes,” he wrote.
Paul has also pointed to a conference call with a dozen scientists, documented by Fauci on Feb. 1, 2020, during which the participants debated whether the virus was naturally occurring or the result of “deliberate insertion.” There was no consensus, according to Fauci’s purported retelling.
Beyond the questions about the virus origin itself, Republicans are also likely to cast Fauci as obsessed with himself and his own rising profile during the outbreak.
Throughout the diary entries, Fauci documents his daily appearances on television and interviews with the press.
He touts calls with high-profile individuals, including one with Barbra Streisand, who asked him about the difference between the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. According to the diaries, Fauci celebrated the interaction by asking his Amazon Alexa to play Streisand’s music.
On May 13, 2020, Fauci also recounts an Instagram conversation with the “absolutely fabulous” Julia Roberts.
“For better or worse, I am becoming an international celebrity,” Fauci wrote on March 10, 2020. “Calls from all over the world.”
Johnson, ahead of the hearing, told MS NOW, “He’s very happy to talk about how famous he became. … I hope he ends up being one of the most infamous villains in history.”
And Paul has posted AI-generated images of Fauci as a teenage girl, mockingly claiming the entries show what Fauci looked like “every night” when he wrote “how great he is in his diary.”
Fauci’s legal team did not respond to MS NOW’s request for comment.
But beyond ridiculing Fauci’s amusement with his new celebrity, Paul and other Republicans are likely to use the entries to press Fauci on what he knew during the early days of the outbreak and whether the virus originated in a laboratory.
Paul has long argued that Fauci helped cover up evidence backing the lab leak theory, and he has alleged that NIAID-backed studies in China helped lead to the global outbreak — a claim Fauci has rejected.
“Fauci and his team destroyed public trust in the CDC and our public health institutions,” Paul posted on X ahead of the hearing.
“Accountability is long overdue,” he added.
In that quest for accountability, Paul subpoenaed Fauci last month, saying the former official declined to appear voluntarily.
Meanwhile, Senate Democrats have long defended Fauci and are expected to do so again Wednesday. But the newly released diary entries are likely to give Republicans fresh lines of attack.
Democrats told MS NOW that Wednesday’s hearing is simply the latest chapter in Paul’s “vendetta against Fauci,” as Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., put it this week.
“He seems to be almost obsessed,” Blumenthal said of Paul.
Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., also accused Paul and Republicans of doing “whatever they can to appease a very small base of this country that’s still living in Covid times.”
Fauci, who spent roughly four decades leading the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases before leaving government at the end of 2022, was long praised by lawmakers in both parties for his work combating HIV/AIDS in the United States and abroad.
When Covid-19 began to spread across the country, Fauci became a regular presence alongside Trump. He later clashed publicly with the White House, particularly as Trump questioned masking guidance and pushed to reopen the country.
As the pandemic wore on, Fauci became a polarizing figure on the political right, with critics blaming him for policies including prolonged school closures.
When it comes to Wednesday’s hearing, Gallego said he is “sure” Republicans are hoping to catch Fauci in a lie — potentially exposing him to legal jeopardy outside the scope of that pardon.
Asked if Fauci could be held accountable for what he says, Sen. Rick Scott of Florida — a Republican who sits on the committee — was not willing to give up the GOP’s game plan.
“We’ll see what he says,” Scott said.
Lisa Rubin contributed to this report.
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