(Daily Mail) Dr Anthony Fauci was tonight accused of lying under oath over his knowledge of dangerous virus research in China — which is feared to have caused the pandemic.
DailyMail.com can reveal Senator Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland last week calling for an investigation into whether Dr Fauci, 82, committed perjury when he testified in front of a Senate committee in 2021.
In a showdown with Republicans, including Sen Paul, in July that year, Dr Fauci testified that his former ‘has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.’
Dr Fauci was the former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) until the end of 2022 and was responsible for signing off on research grants.
Yet newly released emails dated February 1, 2020 show Fauci acknowledged that ‘scientists in Wuhan University are known to have been working on gain-of-function experiments to determine that molecular mechanisms associated with bat viruses adapting to human infection, and the outbreak originated in Wuhan.’
Perjury is a federal offense that carries up to five years in prison. While the emails show that Fauci was aware of gain-of-function going on in the lab, he never admitted that the NIH funded it.
But the Government Accountability Office (GAO) determined last month that the Wuhan Institute of Virology and Wuhan University did receive NIH funding, Sen Paul said in his letter to AG Garland.
New emails dated February 1, 2020 show Fauci acknowledged that ‘scientists in Wuhan University are known to have been working on gain-of-function experiments to determine that molecular mechanisms associated with bat viruses adapting to human infection, and the outbreak originated in Wuhan’
On July 13, 2023 the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic released the emails sent by Dr Fauci about a conference call regarding the origins of Covid attended by Dr Fauci, Dr Francis Collins, former director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, and other researchers.
In one email, Dr Fauci admits the scientists had concerns that Covid might have been genetically engineered and that these were worsened by the fact that gain-of-function research was taking place in Wuhan before the pandemic.
Gain-of-function research is medical research that genetically alters a virus to make it more deadly or infectious to try and get ahead of natural mutations that might occur.
At the hearing in July, Fauci ‘stated that the NIH has never and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology,’ Paul said in the committee chamber.
‘And yet, gain-of-function research was done entirely in the Wuhan Institute by Doctor Shi [Zhengli] and was funded by the NIH,’ he said.
Paul then cited the paper by WIV scientists titled ‘Discovery of a rich gene pool of bat SARS-related coronaviruses provides new insights into the origin of SARS coronavirus’.
The paper specifically talks about ongoing efforts to produce a ‘chimeric’ coronavirus, which means it has been altered by man – otherwise known as ‘gain of function.’
It also details, Paul noted, that the NIH was a source of funding for that research.
Senator Rand Paul got in a heated exchange with Dr. Anthony Fauci at a hearing in July 2021 when he again pushed the nation’s top immunologist on whether the U.S. funded gain of function research in Wuhan. Fauci responded with, ‘You do not know what you are talking about’
Paul gave Fauci the opportunity to retract his May 11 statement claiming the U.S. did not fund gain of function research with its $600,000 grant, saying ‘Dr. Fauci, knowing that it is a crime to lie to Congress, do you wish to retract your statement?’
Fauci got quite animated during the exchange, as he pointed his fingers at Paul for being a ‘liar’
