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Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Monday subpoenaed Dr. Anthony Fauci to testify publicly next month before the U.S. Senate, after Fauci backed out of a voluntary appearance.
Fauci will have to testify before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs, which Paul chairs.
“Today, I have issued a subpoena requiring him to testify before the Committee, in public, next month,” Paul wrote in a post on X on Monday.
Last week, Anthony Fauci notified us he will NOT voluntarily testify before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, even though he had previously agreed to do so.
Therefore, today I have issued a subpoena requiring him to testify before the Committee,…
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) June 22, 2026
An inside source with knowledge of Paul’s plans told The Defender on condition of anonymity that Fauci is expected to testify under oath about “everything” — from his involvement in funding gain-of-function research that may have created COVID-19 to the subsequent cover-up of a possible lab leak.
In an interview with Semafor, Paul said he will also ask Fauci about the destruction of federal records and about the preemptive pardon former President Joe Biden granted him last year.
The pardon shields Fauci from federal prosecution for his official acts dating back to 2014.
“He’s been slow-walking information to us for six months or more,” Paul told Semafor. “We’ve been negotiating over the date for several months. He agreed, then he said he wouldn’t. So, I think it’s time that we bring him in. I think there’s a lot to discuss.”
Speaking to CNBC’s “Squawk Box” today, Paul credited U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for aiding in Paul’s COVID-19 origins investigation.
“We’ve gotten more evidence over the last year. From the Biden administration, they revealed nothing. From the Trump administration, particularly with Secretary Kennedy, we’ve gotten a lot of information,” Paul said.
Deposition ‘about holding Fauci to account’
Investigative journalist Paul D. Thacker, editor of The Disinformation Chronicle and a former Senate investigator, said the deposition “will be about holding Fauci to account for the sake of all the Americans who were harmed by his policies and who were ridiculed as ‘conspiracy theorists’ for noting his dishonesty.”
Paul did not formally announce the date when Fauci is scheduled to testify, but the hearing has reportedly been set for July 29. Paul told CNBC, though, that Fauci may challenge the subpoena in court.
Paul said:
“I think it’s going to be a challenge to get him. I think we will have to fight him in court. But the one thing about the January 6th committee that was a good precedent is the courts have upheld congressional subpoenas. So I think there’s a very good chance the court will command him to come.”
Children’s Health Defense CEO Mary Holland applauded the subpoena. She said:
“It is not shocking that Sen. Rand Paul finally issued a subpoena to Dr. Tony Fauci, the voice of the government and mainstream media during COVID. What is shocking is that Dr. Fauci refuses to testify voluntarily, after having agreed to do so.
“People who trusted, supported and nearly beatified Dr. Fauci throughout COVID must wonder why he refuses to speak.”
Attorney Greg Glaser said the subpoena “is a direct consequence of the public trust being exhausted.”
“Rand Paul subpoenaing Fauci is essential for accountability in the post-COVID era. For five years, Fauci has operated as an untouchable figure behind a wall of institutional immunity and media deference. That wall is finally cracking,” Glaser said.
‘The very definition of a cover-up’
In several follow-up posts on X, Paul elaborated on his allegations that Fauci oversaw risky gain-of-function research, which increases the transmissibility or virulence of viruses, at U.S. biolabs and China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology.
In one post, Paul wrote that U.S. taxpayer money “funded gain-of-function research” at the Wuhan lab, which “likely caused the COVID pandemic.”
Here is what we know: U.S. taxpayer money, funneled through USAID and NIH, funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. That research likely caused the COVID pandemic that killed millions and cost trillions.
Dr. Fauci personally signed off on these…
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) June 22, 2026
“Dr. Fauci personally signed off on these experiments, then lied to Congress about it. Biden tried to protect him with a last-minute pardon. That’s the very definition of a cover-up.”
Fauci’s subpoena comes just days after outgoing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released documents indicating that Fauci funded gain-of-function research that led to the development and subsequent leak of COVID-19 — and that he sought to suppress evidence of the funding and the lab leak.
“Anthony Fauci didn’t just fund dangerous research at the Wuhan lab. He personally shaped what the intelligence community told the American people about COVID’s origins,” Paul wrote on X.
Declassified documents confirm what I’ve been saying for years: Anthony Fauci didn’t just fund dangerous research at the Wuhan lab. He personally shaped what the intelligence community told the American people about COVID’s origins. 18 agencies relied on his guidance. That’s the…
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) June 22, 2026
The subpoena also comes on the heels of Senate testimony last month by CIA whistleblower James E. Erdman III. He testified that Fauci intentionally helped cover up evidence showing that COVID-19 emerged from the Wuhan lab.
“There is such overwhelming evidence that Dr. Fauci used the intelligence agencies to support his gain-of-function agenda, that it’s truly shocking that just one Congressman is subpoenaing him,” said Stephanie Weidle, executive director of Feds for Freedom, a watchdog group Erdman co-founded.
Glaser said the evidence against Fauci goes beyond what was contained in the documents Gabbard recently released. “The Gabbard documents are not the only evidence. There is a growing body of material showing that the intelligence community had information about a lab incident that was suppressed,” he said.
Rutgers University molecular biologist Richard Ebright, Ph.D., agreed. He suggested that Fauci’s responsibility for gain-of-function research is only the tip of the iceberg.
“Fauci willfully violated federal policies on gain-of-function and enhanced potential pandemic pathogen research; committed conspiracy to defraud, fraud, perjury, destruction of federal records, and obstruction; and caused a pandemic that killed 20 million and cost $25 trillion,” Ebright said.
‘There could be some real drama on the way’
Legal experts and commentators have suggested that Biden’s preemptive pardon may not fully protect Fauci during his congressional testimony next month.
“Fauci can be indicted if he fails to be honest about his former lies, for which he needed a pardon,” Thacker said, noting that Fauci may otherwise face perjury charges.
“His pardon means no 5th Amendment protection, according to court precedent, so he might have to tell the truth. There could be some real drama on the way,” said Jeffrey Tucker, president and founder of the Brownstone Institute.
Conservative commentator Michael Knowles told NewsNation’s “CUOMO” that Fauci committed perjury during his 2024 congressional testimony, when he claimed that he did not discuss COVID-19’s origins with intelligence officials. Recently released documents show that Fauci discussed COVID-19’s origins with intelligence officials.
“That was clear perjury, and that’s within the statute of limitations,” Knowles told NewsNation. “We know that from CIA briefings. We know that from whistleblowers.”
In an interview with The Defender earlier this month, Ebright said Fauci faces a limited range of options regarding how to approach his congressional testimony.
Ebright said Fauci can respond truthfully, “confessing that he committed conspiracy to defraud, fraud, perjury, misuse of federal funds, destruction of federal records and obstruction.” Or he can provide false testimony and risk perjury charges, or feign mental incapacitation and inability to recall.
During a closed-door interview with the U.S. House of Representatives in 2024, Fauci claimed more than 100 times that he did not recall details about the federal pandemic response and COVID-19’s origins.
“Fauci has proven himself extremely wily in testimony in the past, but that was before we had all the receipts,” Tucker said. “At this point, he will face a genuine grilling on established facts and known relationships.”
“People are going to get to see ‘The Real Anthony Fauci‘ next time he appears in the Senate to mumble, ‘I do not recall,’ hundreds of times,” Holland said.
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Is Biden’s preemptive pardon of Fauci unconstitutional?
Paul has pushed for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to indict Fauci on perjury charges for allegedly lying to Congress during testimony in May 2021 by claiming that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) never funded gain-of-function research.
The five-year statute of limitations for indicting Fauci for his May 2021 testimony expired last month.
However, Fauci provided similar testimony in July 2021, telling the Senate that NIAID did not fund gain-of-function research, that research involving bat coronaviruses did not fit the definition of such research and that he hadn’t previously lied to Congress. The statute of limitations for that testimony expires next month.
Others have suggested Fauci may face perjury charges as late as 2029, for congressional testimony in 2024 when he claimed he never conducted official National Institutes of Health (NIH) business using his personal email account.
In April, a grand jury indicted Dr. David Morens, formerly a top aide to Fauci at NIAID, for attempting to shield information about COVID-19’s origins from potential Freedom of Information Act review by illegally using his personal email account.
According to Thacker, the DOJ faces organizational challenges that may make it difficult for it to pursue a prosecution of Fauci.
“I don’t believe that Fauci will be indicted. [Attorney General] Todd Blanche is down thousands of attorneys at DOJ, and I’m not sure there’s much appetite for going after Fauci,” Thacker said.
But last week, Paul told The National News Desk that the pardon Biden granted Fauci is likely unconstitutional and “should be challenged in court.”
“How do you pardon someone in advance of a charge?” Paul asked. “A court could look at this and say that’s way too broad.”
Related articles in The Defender
- Gabbard: Never-Before-Seen Documents Show Fauci Lied to Congress
- Smoking Gun? Documents Suggest Fauci Knew COVID Was Created in Wuhan Lab, and mRNA Vaccines Wouldn’t Work
- CIA Whistleblower: Fauci Led Multi-Agency Cover-Up of COVID Lab Leak Evidence
- ‘Profound Abuse of Trust’: Former Fauci Aide Indicted for Conspiracy to Hide Government Records on COVID Origins
- Biden Grants Fauci a ‘Preemptive Pardon.’ Could He Still Face Legal Challenges?
- ‘I Don’t Recall’: Fauci Unable to Answer Key Questions in Pandemic Probe
