(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Embattled former White House COVID czar Anthony Fauci is set to testify before Sen. Rand Paul’s Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
Fauci, who was among several officials pardoned by former President Joe Biden for potential federal offenses, has faced ongoing congressional scrutiny over the use of taxpayer-funded grants tied to controversial coronavirus research.
This upcoming appearance, however, appears to be connected to unearthed emails in which Fauci seemed to urge staff to delete emails.
Fauci’s directive raised questions about compliance with federal record-keeping laws, according to a September 2025 letter from Paul to Fauci.
One of Fauci’s former aides, David Morens, has been indicted over the matter. According to the DOJ, Morens and other co-conspiractors purposely used private email to avoid public disclosure obligations that come with government communications.
The retired COVID czar is expected to participate in a “planned transcribed interview” with Paul and committee majority staff, according to a Tuesday letter first reported by the Daily Caller.
NEWS: Anthony Fauci will report to Sen. Rand Paul’s committee for a transcribed interview later this month, a new letter reveals. pic.twitter.com/UOBRJJ1rWa
— Emily Kopp (@emilyakopp) June 9, 2026
The interview was referenced in a letter from the committee’s ranking member, Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., who accused Paul of excluding minority staff from the transcribed interview.
Peters claimed such an exclusion violates committee rules and would be “unprecedented.”
“Most recently, you have failed to give the Committee minority notice and opportunity to participate in your planned transcribed interview of Dr. Anthony Fauci later this month and have worked instead to prevent any efforts to ensure a fair and legitimate oversight process,” Peters wrote.
Peters suggested that Paul did not inform Democrats that the Fauci interview was being scheduled and that Paul ultimately informed them that only Republicans would be allowed to participate.
“However, the majority informed both the minority and counsel for Dr. Fauci that you would be conducting a majority-only transcribed interview and minority staff would not be allowed to participate,” Peters specifically claimed.
“Excluding the Committee minority from a transcribed interview is contrary to HSGAC’s long history of bipartisan investigations and comity – and to my knowledge, is completely unprecedented,” he added.
The controversy of Fauci, Morens and others trying to hide their communications stems from the infamous $3.7 million grant that the National Institutes of Health gave to Peter Daszak and his firm, EcoHealth Alliance, for “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence.” That grant allegedly funded risky gain-of-function research that some think led to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In early 2020, the Trump administration terminated the grant. But according to the indictment, Morens conspired with others to restore the termination of the bat coronavirus grant and counter the narrative that COVID-19 leaked from a lab. The grant was reinstated in April 2023, which was after Morens had left his role at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
As part of their conspiracy, Morens and the others unnamed used private email to avoid public disclosure obligations that come with government communications.
“Morens, Co-Conspirator 1, and Co-Conspirator 2 agreed in writing to intentionally hide from public view their communications by corresponding using Morens’s personal Gmail account, rather than his official NIH email account,” the DOJ said in a press release.
“The indictment alleges that the conspirators used Morens’s personal Gmail account to exchange non-public NIH information; correspond about their efforts to influence NIH to fund Company #1; exchange edits to drafts of letters addressed to NIH leadership for Company #1 and Co-Conspirator 1; and “back-channel” information to Senior NIAID Official 1.”
The indictment also alleges that Morens conspired with Co-conspirator 1 to pay illegal gratuities.
Peters provided no evidence to support the claims raised in his letter.
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