WASHINGTON — Sen. Roger Marshall has urged the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel to investigate Dr. Anthony Fauci following the release last month of new intelligence documents related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Marshall (R-Kan.), one of four trained physicians in the Senate, argued in a Monday letter to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche that a special counsel would “avoid the appearance that the federal government is improperly reviewing its own pandemic-era misconduct.”
“Specifically, the investigation should examine Dr. Fauci’s role related to the origins of COVID- 19, federal funding for risky coronavirus research, and the obstruction of congressional oversight,” Marshall wrote.
Fauci, now 85, departed his longtime role as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the end of 2022 after 38 years in the role. He also served as chief medical adviser to former President Joe Biden.
Before departing the White House in January 2025, Biden handed Fauci a pre-emptive pardon absolving him of any and all federal offenses the doctor may have committed from Jan. 1, 2014.
On June 19, outgoing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released a trove of files showing that officials protected Fauci from a whistleblower complaint alleging he lied to Congress about so-called “gain of function” research conducted in Wuhan, China, after he suggested pangolins were to blame for the outbreak that has killed a reported 7.1 million people worldwide.
The documents also revealed that during a June 2021 meeting with CIA officials, Fauci redirected focus away from the now-dominant lab leak theory to a wet market in Wuhan from where some early cases emerged.
“[T]he materials raise serious questions about Dr. Fauci’s role in directing or influencing the government’s understanding of COVID-19’s origins and about whether dissenting voices inside the federal government were sidelined or retaliated against,” Marshall contended.
Republicans have repeatedly attacked Fauci over his support for gain-of-function research, which modifies pathogens to increase their potency.
Under Fauci’s watch, NIAID directed grants to Manhattan non-profit EcoHealth Alliance to study bat coronaviruses in association with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where staffers fell ill in the fall of 2019, before COVID-19 had circulated widely.
Marshall further contended that a special counsel could investigate whether Biden’s pardon of Fauci was legally binding.
“The pandemic imposed enormous costs on Kansas families, businesses, and communities, as well as on the entire country,” Marshall concluded. “The restoration of the public’s trust demands an independent investigation of federal officials’ conduct before, during, and even after the pandemic.”
The Justice Department and an attorney for Fauci did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
