Senator Rand Paul is demanding Dr. Anthony Fauci appear before Congress again after newly obtained emails show the former federal health official directed employees to delete records, contradicting his sworn testimony to lawmakers.
Fauci may be guilty of perjury, Paul has hinted.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, chaired by Paul, obtained documents showing Fauci instructed National Institutes of Health employees to destroy email communications during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“These documents suggest your direct involvement in efforts to conceal information related to the Committee’s investigation and appear to contradict your previous testimony before Congress,” Paul wrote in a letter Tuesday.
The Kentucky Republican posted the damning emails on social media Wednesday —
🚨BREAKING: Newly released emails show Fauci directed colleagues to “delete this after you read it”—dating back to Feb. 2020.
He denied it under oath. These documents are now public, and Fauci will finally testify before Chairman Rand Paul. pic.twitter.com/kHrUDjfRXI
— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) September 10, 2025
Two specific emails seem to directly contradict Fauci’s congressional testimony. In a February 2, 2020 message to then-NIH Director Francis Collins, Fauci wrote: “Please delete this e-mail after you read it.”
A July 20, 2020 email to an unnamed NIH employee stated: “I do not want to engage any more with this nonsense. And so, please delete this e-mail after you read it.”
During his June 2024 testimony before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, Fauci was directly asked if he had ever deleted records. He responded simply: “No.”
He was similarly asked if he had ever attempted to obstruct Freedom of Information Act requests or deleted emails related to the Wuhan lab or virus origins. Fauci again answered “No.”
Paul has been one of the leading voices promoting the lab leak hypothesis, which states the coronavirus originated from experiments on bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. The CIA has said it believes the virus responsible for the pandemic originated from the Wuhan lab.
The senator has previously referred Fauci to the Department of Justice twice for obstruction of justice and perjury, when he claimed Fauci lied to Congress about NIH funding of potentially dangerous experiments in China.
“I do believe Anthony Fauci committed a felony by lying to Congress,” Paul said in a July interview. “You have to charge him with a felony, take him to court, and then the court will decide whether or not the pardon is upheld.”
Paul’s committee has requested extensive records from Fauci, including all email addresses, phone numbers and messaging applications he used between January 1, 2018 and January 1, 2023. The committee also wants emails, call records and voicemails from government-issued or personal devices, including encrypted or third-party messaging applications related to COVID-19.
The committee provided Fauci with five date windows to appear between October 28 and December 11.
This marks the latest development in what sources describe as a “vicious five-year battle” between Paul and Fauci over the government’s handling of the pandemic.
The revelations about Fauci’s direct involvement in record deletion come after other NIH and NIAID employees were implicated in destroying government records to conceal pandemic origins. The House Oversight Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic uncovered that David Morens, one of Fauci’s top aides, used his personal email to avoid Freedom of Information Act requests and referred to a “back channel” to reach Fauci.
Another Fauci aide, NIAID chief of staff Greg Folkers, intentionally misspelled words in emails to evade FOIA requests.
Former President Joe Biden granted Fauci a preemptive pardon on his last day in office for all potential crimes committed between 2014 and his retirement from NIAID in 2023. The pardon could shield Fauci from consequences if found guilty of lying about pandemic-related matters.
However, Fauci’s pardon is among several involved in the ongoing investigation regarding Biden’s use of an autopen to sign pardons and executive orders during his final months in office. Biden told The New York Times in July that he orally granted all pardons and commutations but used the autopen for warrants because he granted clemency to so many people.
The autopen was used on 25 pardons and commutation warrants from December to January. House investigators continue examining the use of the autopen during the Biden administration, though no steps have been taken to reverse any pardons or commutations. Critics have questioned whether Biden actually authorized the pardons, or if they were instead written and signed by his staff.
Biden pardoned over 4,200 individuals during his four years in office, more than any other president in United States history. Fauci was among those preemptively pardoned in January 2025, just one day before Trump’s inauguration.
Paul discussed the broader implications in a recent interview for The All-In Podcast, saying that cover-ups don’t require planning but rather “a convergence of interests.”
“The convergence of interest in COVID was, ‘Holy crap, we funded this,'” Paul said.