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A U.S. Senate subcommittee investigating Dr. Anthony Fauci said it has obtained a copy of Fauci’s iPhone from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), The Wall Street Journal reported.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chair of the U.S. Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which is investigating Fauci, also announced the news on X on Wednesday night.
“Hopefully, this device will address many of the questions he refused to answer at last week’s hearing,” Johnson wrote, referring to last week’s contentious congressional hearing on Fauci’s role in leading the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the hearing, held by the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times, declining to answer every question posed by committee members.
The committee today voted along party lines to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress and refer him to the U.S. Department of Justice for possible prosecution over his refusal to answer questions.
During the debate over whether to hold Fauci in contempt, Johnson said, “My investigation has just begun.” He said last week’s hearing was just the beginning of the process to hold Fauci accountable. “There’s a lot more accountability that’s required.”
Sen. Ron Johnson, who obtained Fauci’s phone: “My investigation has just begun.” pic.twitter.com/M9Vt7slIGR
— Jordan Rachel (@TheJordanRachel) August 6, 2026
Fauci turned in phone when he retired
The WSJ cited a person familiar with the matter, who said Fauci turned in his government phone when he retired, and that returning government-owned devices when leaving a post is standard federal practice.
Fauci used the phone during his tenure as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), according to Johnson’s office.
During that time, he was also a member of the White House COVID-19 Response Team and chief medical adviser to Biden. He played a key role in both the Trump and Biden administrations’ pandemic response.
Fauci retired in 2022, and in January 2025, Biden granted him a blanket pardon, covering “any offenses” Fauci had committed since 2014.
Fauci administered NIAID when the agency reportedly provided funding to the Wuhan Institute of Virology for gain-of-function research, conducted jointly by Chinese and U.S. researchers. The research may have created the virus that led to the pandemic.
Documents obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, along with findings from a congressional investigation, revealed that Fauci and others also colluded to push the “natural origins” theory and to cover up U.S. government funding of gain-of-function research.
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Last week, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) released Fauci’s personal diary entries. The entries, spanning from December 2019 to the end of 2022, provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the virus’s source, public messaging, the government’s response to the pandemic and Fauci’s reaction to being thrust into the media spotlight.
The phone and diaries may be only part of more documents to come, according to the WSJ. Paul and Johnson have reportedly received millions of Fauci-related documents from government servers.
The phone was provided to the committee by HHS, headed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., author of “The Real Anthony Fauci.” The book details Fauci’s controversial, questionable, and previously largely unknown actions around AIDs and other epidemic diseases over his 50-year career as a public health bureaucrat.
More and more people are reportedly reading the book as public scrutiny of Fauci’s actions has increased.
Related articles in The Defender
- Breaking: Senate Committee Votes to Hold Fauci in Contempt
- Congress Asked Fauci at Least 111 Questions — Fauci Refused to Answer at Least 111 Times
- ‘You Funded This’: Sen. Rand Paul Exposes Fauci’s Role in Funding Research That Created COVID Pandemic
- Biden Grants Fauci a ‘Preemptive Pardon.’ Could He Still Face Legal Challenges?
- Rand Paul Issues Subpoena Forcing Fauci to Testify Under Oath
- ‘I Am the Most Famous’: Fauci Basked in Media Spotlight, Newly Released Diaries Show
