Tulsi Gabbard spent her last day in office dropping a several-hundred-page document proving Fauci lied to Congress.
The next week, Fauci told Rand Paul he wasn't coming to testify.
But Rand Paul just made sure that decision has consequences Fauci is going to regret.
Fauci Agreed, Then Ran
Paul dropped a subpoena on Fauci Monday – commanding him to testify publicly in July before the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
This wasn't a surprise ambush.
Fauci had already promised to testify.
Paul says his committee spent six months negotiating the date.
"He's been slow-walking information to us for six months or more," Paul said. "He agreed, then he said he wouldn't. So I think it's time that we bring him in."
When Fauci finally pulled out last week, Paul had seen enough.
Paul says the January 6 committee's own subpoena precedents will hold it up in court if Fauci tries to fight it.
Fauci isn't getting out of this one.
The Gabbard Documents Changed Everything
The timing wasn't random.
Gabbard used her final day as Director of National Intelligence to release a trove of declassified documents that confirm what Paul has been arguing since 2021 – that the ODNI found Fauci funded dangerous gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, then lied to Congress about it under oath.
Among the documents is an August 2021 communication from the Intelligence Community Inspector General citing a whistleblower complaint that Fauci gave false testimony to Congress about gain-of-function research at NIH, deliberately misleading both the public and Congressional oversight.
Intelligence analysts who challenged Fauci's COVID-origin conclusions faced retaliation – marginalized, hit with career setbacks, and pressured to stay quiet.
Gabbard said the documents show that leaders like Fauci "covered up their own wrongdoing and abuses of power, manipulated intelligence, lied to Congress, and undermined a duly elected president."
Then Fauci said he wasn't coming to testify.
The Cover-Up Has a Paper Trail
The hearing Paul is building toward isn't just about gain-of-function denials from five years ago.
It's about a criminal conspiracy that's already produced federal indictments.
David Morens – Fauci's senior adviser at NIAID for 16 years – was indicted in April on charges of conspiracy against the United States, destruction and falsification of records in a federal investigation, and concealment of federal documents.
The DOJ alleges Morens used his personal Gmail account to hide communications about the Wuhan bat coronavirus grant from FOIA requests – then bragged in emails about how the "FOIA lady" coached him to bury records.
As a bonus, a co-conspirator sent Morens two bottles of wine as payment for his "behind-the-scenes shenanigans," with promises of Michelin-starred restaurant dinners in Paris, New York, and Washington to follow.
https://twitter.com/DschlopesIsBack/status/2069186161264754691?s=20
A second Fauci lieutenant – virologist Vincent Munster – was separately charged with importing dangerous pathogens without a permit, falsely labeling them as "diagnostic equipment."
Paul believes both men are now positioned to flip.
"My goodness, it would be worth it to see one or two of his lieutenants give up testimony that they would not have given up otherwise, but now that they've been indicted, might be inclined to tell the truth," Paul said.
The Pardon Problem – and Why It Might Not Hold
Here's what Fauci is counting on.
Biden pardoned him by autopen before leaving office – a blanket pardon covering any federal offenses from 2014 forward.
Biden framed it as protection against what he called politically motivated prosecutions.
Paul calls it something else entirely.
https://twitter.com/RandPaul/status/2069129039462498430?s=20
He's challenging the pardon's legitimacy on two fronts: whether Biden was mentally competent when the autopen fired, and whether a non-specific blanket pardon – one not tied to any named crime – can legally shield someone from prosecution.
"Was President Biden of sound mind? Did he understand who he was pardoning? Did he participate in it?" Paul said.
No court has ever ruled on those questions.
What Paul is engineering is a public hearing that builds a factual record – gain-of-function funding, destroyed records, manipulated intelligence, criminal subordinates – that makes Fauci's position in front of the American people untenable whether or not a courtroom ever touches him.
The man who told you the virus came from a wet market, that masks didn't work then did work, that schools needed to close, that NIH never funded the Wuhan lab – that man now has a federal subpoena with his name on it.
July can't come fast enough.
Sources:
- Rand Paul, X post, June 22, 2026.
- Misty Severi, "Rand Paul Subpoenas Fauci for Testimony in COVID Origin Probe," Just the News, June 22, 2026.
- "Fauci Funded Wuhan Lab Research That Sparked COVID," Office of the Director of National Intelligence, June 19, 2026.
- "Former Senior NIAID Official Indicted for Concealing Federal Records During COVID-19 Pandemic," U.S. Department of Justice, April 28, 2026.
- Amanda Head, "Two Top Senators Urge Trump DOJ to Prosecute Fauci Despite Biden Pardon," Just the News, June 17, 2026.
