Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul has a clever legal plan to undo former President Joe Biden’s controversial autopen-signed executive orders and criminal pardons.
Paul is demanding the Justice Department prosecute Anthony Fauci for lying to Congress as the only way to legally challenge Biden’s autopen pardons in court.
Paul outlined his plan on the conservative “The Charlie Kirk Show” on Tuesday. Charging Fauci represents the best strategy to test whether Biden’s “signatures” will survive legal scrutiny, Paul explained.
The Kentucky Republican announced Monday he would reissue his criminal referral against the former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director to the Trump Justice Department.
“I do believe Anthony Fauci committed a felony by lying to Congress. 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 said. “You can argue until you’re blue in the face that you can’t do autopens and that maybe the president wasn’t aware of it. But the only way to actually do this is to charge someone who has been pardoned.”
The senator argued that Fauci deliberately misled Congress about gain-of-function virus research funding.
Fauci testified “in a very vigorous and heated and animated way” that the National Institutes of Health never funded gain-of-function virus research in Wuhan, China.
“This is directly contradicted by the actual people who were involved in the funding,” Paul said. “I think Anthony Fauci is the most likely to be chargeable. There are other people — Hunter Biden could be charged as well — but someone has to be charged.”
This marks Paul’s third criminal referral against Fauci. He previously filed referrals in 2021 and 2023 as part of his investigation into COVID-19 origins and gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
“Perjury is a crime,” Paul said simply. “And Fauci must be held accountable.”
Republicans have been outraged over Biden’s team’s use of an autopen machine to sign over 4,000 clemency documents during his final months in office. The New York Times reported that emails showed Chief of Staff Jeff Zients — not the president — gave final approval for autopen use on preemptive pardons for Fauci and former Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley.
Considering Biden’s considerable cognitive decline at the end of his term, President Donald Trump called the autopen scandal possibly “one of the biggest scandals that we’ve had in 50 to 100 years.”
“I guarantee you he knew nothing about what he was signing, I guarantee you,” Trump said.
Trump has requested Attorney General Pam Bondi investigate Biden’s autopen usage while Senate and House committees are conducting their own hearings on the matter.
Biden issued preemptive pardons for Fauci, Milley, and members of the House January 6 committee alongside his controversial pardon of son Hunter Biden and other family members.
Paul’s strategy to challenge these pardons in court is uncertain legal territory. Presidential pardon power is considered broad under the Constitution, but questions remain if Biden was mentally competent to authorize such sweeping clemency actions… or if the autopen signatures were illegally made on his behalf.
The senator’s focus on Fauci also reflects years of Republican anger over COVID-19 policies and the former health official’s role in pandemic response. Paul has consistently argued that Fauci lied to Congress while under oath about dangerous virus research that may have contributed to the pandemic’s origins.