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In the final minutes of his administration, former President Joe Biden preemptively pardoned Dr. Anthony Fauci, in what The New York Times called “an extraordinary effort by an outgoing president to derail political prosecutions by an incoming president.”
The pardon, retroactive to Jan. 1, 2014, addresses “any offenses” Fauci committed during this period, including in his former capacities as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, member of the White House COVID-19 Response Team and chief medical adviser to Biden.
The fact that Fauci's pardon specifically and explicitly addresses his Covid-related offenses, while being backdated to 2014—the year the gain-of-function ban took effect, which Fauci circumvented by outsourcing experiments to China—speaks volumes as to what this is really about. pic.twitter.com/rRI4fXsx5E
— Hans Mahncke (@HansMahncke) January 20, 2025
Fauci told The Hill he will accept the pardon.
“Issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that any individual engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense,” Biden said, according to ABC News. “Our nation owes these public servants a debt of gratitude for their tireless commitment to our country.”
Biden said the pardon was a response to “exceptional circumstances” within which public servants like Fauci “have been subjected to ongoing threats and intimidation for faithfully discharging their duties.”
“Even when individuals have done nothing wrong — and in fact have done the right thing — and will ultimately be exonerated, the mere fact of being investigated or prosecuted can irreparably damage reputations and finances,” Biden said, according to the Times.
Preemptive pardons aren’t unprecedented, but they’re rare, said Children’s Health Defense CEO Mary Holland. Holland questioned the need for a preemptive pardon, given that there hasn’t been a criminal investigation or any criminal conviction.
Children's Health Defense, @maryhollandnyc responds to the pardon of Anthony Fauci.
— Children’s Health Defense (@ChildrensHD) January 20, 2025
What this means and what can still be done to hold him accountable⬇️ pic.twitter.com/TAr1EdVIMf
Trump responds to ‘disgraceful’ pardons
In a response shared via text message with ABC News, President Donald Trump called Biden’s pardons, which also included several members of his family, “disgraceful.”
According to Reuters, Trump said the pardons make the recipients “look very guilty.” Trump’s deputy chief of staff for communications and personnel said the pardons “will go down as the greatest attack on America’s justice system in history.”
Naomi Wolf, Ph.D., journalist and CEO of Daily Clout called the Fauci pardon “shocking and entirely predictable.” She said it constitutes “evidence of Biden’s awareness of Fauci’s criminal behavior and actions.”
Wolf, author of “The Pfizer Papers: Pfizer’s Crimes Against Humanity,” said the pardon also “raises serious questions about Biden’s complicity in many medical murders.”
Several of Fauci’s alleged medical crimes were listed in a statement by the Independent Medical Alliance — formerly the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance. These include coercing millions of people into getting the COVID-19 vaccines and discouraging the use of alternative treatments such as ivermectin, and collaborating with social media platforms to censor posts questioning the vaccines.
“The entire world is asking why Anthony Fauci needed a pardon if he’s supposedly done nothing wrong,” Independent Medical Alliance spokesperson Lynne Kristensen said in the statement. “In fact, Fauci led the ivory-tower medical establishment in a shameful COVID response that served as a wake-up call to front-line doctors across the globe.”
Rutgers University molecular biologist Richard Ebright, Ph.D., a frequent critic of gain-of-function research, said Fauci’s pardon was backdated to 2014 because that year “is the start date of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant that funded the reckless research in Wuhan, China, that caused COVID.”
“Fauci violated federal policies on gain-of-function research and enhanced potential pandemic pathogen research, committed conspiracy to defraud and perjury, used federal funds to commit crimes and caused a pandemic that killed 20 million and cost $25 trillion,” Ebright told The Defender. “The pardon is a travesty.”
Fauci told ABC News he was grateful for Biden’s pardon.
“I really truly appreciate the action President Biden has taken today on my behalf,” Fauci said. “Let me be perfectly clear … 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.”
But for Jeffrey Tucker, director of the Brownstone Institute, “The pardoning of Fauci might help him personally now and he appears grateful. But it also cements in the public mind the worst-possible perception of his work and legacy.”
Ebright cited U.S. Supreme Court precedent. “The law of the land is absolutely clear. The Supreme Court ruled in Burdick v. United States, in 1915, that acceptance of a pardon implies an acknowledgment of guilt.”
Fauci may still face congressional inquiries, state-level legal challenges
According to The Associated Press (AP) “heated debate” took place “at the highest levels of the White House” in the months leading up to the pardons, with some Biden administration officials pushing hard for Fauci and others to be pardoned.
“No other president has employed executive clemency in such a broad and overt way,” the Times reported. The closest parallel may be former President Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon in 1974, although Nixon had not been charged with a crime.
According to the AP, the pardon may not shield Fauci from all potential legal threats, particularly congressional inquiries. The new Republican-led Congress “would still likely have wide leverage” to conduct inquiries, the AP reported.
If there was ever any doubt as to who bears responsibility for the COVID pandemic, Biden’s pardon of Fauci forever seals the deal.
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) January 20, 2025
As Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee I will not rest until the entire truth of the coverup is exposed.…
Attorney Rick Jaffe told The Defender he suspects that, despite the pardon, Fauci likely “will be hauled before Congress,” potentially as part of investigations not targeting him directly but examining matters such as federal funding of the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Former Senate investigator Jason Foster, founder and chair of the whistleblower nonprofit Empower Oversight, told RealClearInvestigations that Fauci may also face an additional obstacle if called to testify before Congress.
“When testifying in those inquiries or answering written depositions, Fauci will be unable to dodge questions by invoking his Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination,” according to RealClearInvestigations. Foster said, “And if he lies about any prior lie, he can be prosecuted for that or held in contempt.”
Attorney Greg Glaser told The Defender that Fauci may also face legal challenges at the state level.
“Fauci can still be prosecuted under state law. The U.S. Supreme Court has articulated checks and balances upon the pardon power, so the power is limited to the federal executive branch,” Glaser said.
Ebright noted that the pardon did not extend to other key figures who collaborated with Fauci, such as former NIH director Francis Collins.
“This sets the stage for prosecution of Fauci’s co-conspirators and for full exposure of Fauci’s crimes through prosecution of his co-conspirators,” Ebright said.
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