Matt Taibbi tells Tucker Carlson why Biden's pardon for Fauci could help bring curtain down on COVID cover-up



Investigative reporter Matt Taibbi and Tucker Carlson recently spoke at length about long-standing efforts by deep-staters to control information flows, apparent last-ditch attempts by elements of the previous administration to embroil the U.S. in a direct conflict with Russia, and the likelihood that President Donald Trump has been targeted for assassination on more occasions than have been publicly admitted.

While the conversation was wide-ranging, it largely centered on the question of what impact Trump's mass disclosures — particularly his planned declassification of government documents — might have, not only on his safety but regarding various matters left unresolved or swept under the rug over the past four years, including the COVID-19 pandemic and its possible manufacture.

Taibbi told Carlson that in this time of revelation and reopened investigations, former President Joe Biden's strategic blunder could ultimately prove to be what forces Anthony Fauci to spill the beans.

While Biden apparently sought to spare Fauci from accountability, Taibbi indicated that the former president's pardon of Fauci on the eve of Trump's inauguration actually painted a target on his back and deprived the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of his key means of self-preservation.

"The thing is about these pardons — they're a mistake. If you want to know what's happening, they just made it a lot easier for us to find out," said Taibbi. "Once the pardon's delivered, the person can't plead the Fifth. If they're brought before a grand jury, they can't take the Fifth any more. If they're brought before a congressional committee, they can't invoke the right against self-incrimination."

'It's going to be like a turkey shoot.'

Citing the insights of past and current congressional investigators as well as criminal defense attorneys, Taibbi suggested that the consensus is that it is "illogical to give somebody a pardon if you're trying to cover up things" unless "there are very serious crimes involved."

In either case, the pardon serves as a giant "red flag."

When asked what possible crimes Fauci might have needed cover for, going all the way back to Jan. 1, 2014 — around the time the Obama administration supposedly halted funding for dangerous gain-of-function research that makes pathogens more deadly and/or more transmissible — Taibbi noted that "the one thing that comes to mind immediately is perjury."

"Lying under oath to the Congress. In particular, saying, you know, that we have never funded gain-of-[function] research, that we weren't doing it during this time period — even as there are other people in the government, like the deputy director of the NIH, saying, 'Yes we were,' or Ralph Baric, who was one of the scientists at UNC, saying, 'Yes, absolutely, that was gain-of-function,'" said Taibbi.

Fauci misled Congress by stating in May 2021 that the National Institutes of Health "has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology."

In addition to putting the former NIAID director back on the hot seat, Taibbi suggested that other people with fingerprints all over the pandemic, including Peter Daszak — the British zoologist who was formally debarred along with his scandal-plagued organization EcoHealth Alliance this month by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — may similarly be trotted out to answer questions, including questions about documents that the Trump administration may release.

"There are documents that we know exist that we're going to get now with FBI communications between the bureau and a lot of these scientists dating back 10 years, and it's going to tell a very crazy story," said Taibbi. "There's a reason why Fauci's pardon is backdated to 2014, because that's the time period that they're going to have to start looking [at]."

The investigative reporter suggested that key questions to revisit with these scientists will be, "When did we start defying the ban on gain-of-function research? ... Why were we doing it? What connection did that have to the Wuhan thing? What kind of advanced notice did we get? What kind of lies were told about it? Who were responsible for those lies? What kind of information did we get about the inefficacy of the vaccine?"

"COVID is a gigantic rats' nest of stuff," continued Taibbi. "It's going to be like a turkey shoot, where every direction they look, they're going to find something revelatory."

The investigative reporter suggested that the Republican-controlled government could illuminate what authorities actually knew about what was going on at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where American tax dollars ended up courtesy of Fauci; whether there was advance warning that the pandemic was coming; and whether investigations into the possibility of a lab leak were suppressed "because of the connections to U.S. research."

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Weekend Beacon 1/26/25

January 25 - 26, 2025

We are barely a week into the second Trump administration and the outrage is spilling forth. It's almost too much to grasp, really. Norm violations are busting out all over. And I'm just talking about Lauren Sanchez's inaugural outfit.

But speaking of norms, Tal Fortgang has a review of Olivier Roy's The Crisis of Culture: Identity Politics and the Empire of Norms.

The post Weekend Beacon 1/26/25 appeared first on .

The ‘Faucian pardon’ leaves Americans demanding justice



Is there a more epic self-own in the history of self-owns than accepting a presidential pardon for crimes you — wink, wink, fingers crossed, pinky-promise — insist you never committed?

Especially when you claim to be the walking, talking embodiment of science itself, otherwise known as Anthony Fauci.

Anthony Fauci committed crimes against humanity that he should pay dearly for in this life and the next, and Americans should never forget that.

Science, after all, is the relentless pursuit of truth through experimentation, leading to hard evidence and irrefutable facts. So what exactly could Fauci be worried about? Unless, of course, he’s guilty of striking the very "Faucian Bargain" that Todd Erzen and I exposed in our No. 1 national best-seller back in early 2021.

I think a refresher course might be in order about the man we described in the book’s subtitle as “the most powerful and dangerous bureaucrat in American history.”

How did Fauci go from saying in Jan. 2020 that COVID was “very low-risk” and “not something the American people need to be frightened about,” or in late February predicting, based on data, that COVID was just a bad flu, or in early March saying that “there’s no reason to be walking around with a mask” to, just three days later, during the now-infamous press conference held on March 11, warning that COVID was “10 times more lethal than the seasonal flu”?

Why did Fauci go out of his way to ridicule a peer-reviewed paper from August 2020 that highlighted positive developments in treating COVID with hydroxychloroquine, a drug that had anecdotal support from doctors treating COVID across the globe as well as the support of other experts in the field?

Why did Fauci call lockdowns “draconian” when they applied to Ebola in Africa — a virus with an average case fatality rate of 50%, according to the World Health Organization — but demand that they were the only sane option for fighting COVID in America? And why did he do that even though Sweden was proving him wrong in real time by not turning into a zombie apocalypse and ultimately having better health outcomes than nearly every nation in the world despite never locking down?

Why did a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit show that Fauci approved confidentiality forms that were related to inquiries about the origins of COVID and the possible involvement of the Wuhan Institute of Virology?

Why does Fauci’s pardon explicitly run cover for him going back to 2014, when the Obama administration itself grew uncomfortable with his support and funding of dangerous gain-of-function research?

The research and sources behind “Faucian Bargain” are supported by more than 200 footnotes. Fauci’s actions, which dismantled freedoms, wrecked the economy, and disrupted an election, bear significant responsibility. He is guilty of very high crimes, which is why Todd and I closed our book this way:

Fauci isn’t your friend. He’s a fiend. Benjamin Franklin was one of our beloved Founding Fathers, but Fauci is an unfounding deadbeat dad. Nearly every premise he has asserted from the beginning has either been a well-intentioned or purposeful undermining of the truth, the Constitution, the rule of law, common decency, and individual liberty. A year under Fauci’s thumb makes King George III’s madness look like the JV team. ... Time to throw that idol into the fire.

But instead of a gallows (after a fair trial, of course), so far Fauci has received medals and a get-out-of-jail card while helping make Big Pharma insane amounts of blood money through an mRNA jab that is actively hurting or killing more people than COVID ever did.

Sure, the pardon is undeniable proof that Emperor Fauci does indeed wear no clothes, just as we said all along. I could not care less about personal vindication, though. I want justice.

Anthony Fauci committed crimes against humanity that he should pay dearly for in this life and the next, and Americans should never forget that.

Trump revokes security detail of another former deep-stater



President Donald Trump revoked disgraced Dr. Anthony Fauci's security detail Thursday night.

Fauci is the latest deep-stater to have his security detail pulled following Trump's inauguration on Monday. Since then, Trump has also revoked security for John Bolton, his former national security adviser, and Mike Pompeo, his former secretary of state. Additionally, Trump rescinded the security clearances of 51 intelligence officials who falsely claimed that Hunter Biden's laptop was Russian disinformation.

'You know, they all made a lot of money. They could hire their own security.'

Trump addressed the media about the recent security removals, arguing that "you can't have a security detail for the rest of your life because you worked for government."

"You know, when you work for the government, at some point, your security detail comes off," Trump said during a press conference Friday. "You can't have it forever, so I think it's very standard."

"You know, they all made a lot of money," Trump told reporters. "They could hire their own security. All the people you’re talking about. They can go out. I can give them some good numbers of very good security people. They can hire their own security."

Fauci also made headlines earlier in the week after former President Joe Biden issued a pre-emptive pardon for the former NIH director just hours before Trump was officially sworn in.

"This guy went around giving everybody pardons," Trump said Wednesday night in an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity. "And you know the funny thing, maybe the sad thing is, he didn't give himself a pardon."

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Lisa Murkowski denounces Trump's J6 pardons



Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska denounced President Donald Trump's sweeping pardon of 1,500 defendants convicted of offenses related to the January 6 protest at the Capitol.

On his first day in office, Trump pardoned the 1,500 defendants and commuted the sentences of 14 others, fulfilling one of his key campaign promises.

'The Capitol Police officers are the backbone of Congress — every day they protect and serve the halls of democracy.'

"This proclamation ends a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years and begins a process of national reconciliation," the pardon reads.

While Trump and his allies maintained great support for pardoning the J6 "hostages," including Blaze News investigative reporter Steve Baker, Murkowski expressed great disapproval.

"The Capitol Police officers are the backbone of Congress — every day they protect and serve the halls of democracy," Murkowski said. "I strongly denounce the blanket pardons given to the violent offenders who assaulted these brave men and women in uniform."

Other Republicans, like Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, had similar reservations about the sweeping nature of the pardons.

"Anybody who is convicted of assault on a police officer, I can't get there at all," Tillis said Tuesday. "I think it was a bad idea."

Although she was highly critical of Trump's J6 pardons, Murkowski refrained from addressing the pardons former President Joe Biden issued just hours before Trump was sworn in.

In the 11th hour, Biden pardoned Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley, and members of the January 6 committee, as well as his brothers Francis and James Biden, his sister Valerie Biden Owens, his sister-in-law Sara Biden, and his brother-in-law John Owens.

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Despite Biden’s pardon, Anthony Fauci still faces legal perils. Here they are.



Joe Biden’s pardon of Dr. Anthony Fauci may protect the former National Institutes of Health official from immediate criminal prosecution, but some critics say he is not completely out of legal jeopardy and that public sentiment might still condemn the man who became known during the COVID-19 pandemic as “Mr. Science.”

In the days before Biden offered the pardon to Fauci, along with other critics of Donald Trump, some experts who have followed Fauci’s career and handling of the pandemic, as well as members of the Trump transition team, reiterated their assertion that Fauci perjured himself on several occasions during the pandemic — especially regarding his agency’s links to the lab in Wuhan, China, that may have created the virus that causes COVID-19.

Biden’s pardon negates the two Senate referrals for criminal activity. But future hearings could still require Fauci to respond to evidence that he may have perjured himself.

The pardon addresses any COVID-related offenses and is backdated to 2014 — the year a U.S. ban on so-called "gain of function" virus research took effect. Fauci has been accused of outsourcing that research to China.

Despite reporting that Trump is bent on revenge, the appetite among MAGA appointees for holding Fauci accountable hasn’t been particularly vocal. But former Senate investigator Jason Foster, who now runs the whistleblower nonprofit Empower Oversight, says that Biden’s pardon creates new legal jeopardy for Fauci.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has vowed to continue investigating COVID’s origins, and sources tell RealClearInvestigations that Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and House Republican investigators plan to do so as well. When testifying in those inquiries or answering written depositions, Fauci will be unable to dodge questions by invoking his Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination.

“They can ask him if he lied before, replow old ground,” Foster said. “And if he lies about any prior lie, he can be prosecuted for that or held in contempt.”

Andrew Noymer, associate professor of population health and disease prevention at the University of California, Irvine, said such hearings are necessary for scientific and historical reasons. “I’m hopeful that he will now come clean about everything he knows about the origins of the virus,” Noymer said. “For the sake of public trust in science — explaining what killed 20 million people — that a complete account is much more important than speculation about what criminal penalties he may have avoided.”

“These pardons will not stop Department of Justice investigations,” said one adviser to the Trump transition team, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “We expected this and look at it as a predicate to get truth from people who can no longer use the Fifth Amendment. Now we can bring every one of them in front of a grand jury.”

A legacy of deception

There is no consensus on Fauci’s handling of the pandemic. Legacy media outlets promoted Fauci throughout the pandemic as “America’s doctor” who “sticks to the facts” and applauded him as “the nation’s top infectious disease expert.” When he retired from the NIH after five decades in 2022, the New York Times granted him space on its opinion page to advise the next generation of scientists, citing his own accomplishments.

Numerous social media outlets have provided a polar opposite perspective. Several X accounts have uploaded videos that show Fauci’s inconsistencies. For example, Fauci claimed in early 2022 interviews that he never recommended lockdowns, but later said he recommended shutting the country down. Independent journalist Matt Orfalea circulated another set of clips that show Fauci claiming he kept an “open mind” about how the pandemic started while alleging in others that the evidence pointed against a lab accident and “strongly” in favor of a natural spillover.

As Fauci’s flip-flops generated attention in Republican circles and on social media, he charged that such criticism was “totally preposterous,” adding, “Attacks on me, quite frankly, are attacks on science.”

Fauci’s many contradictory statements even caught the attention of a New York Times contributing opinion writer, Megan K. Stack, who chastised Fauci for “the largely one-sided nature of his public remarks” about the possibility that the pandemic started from an accident at a lab his agency had helped fund — the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Initially, Fauci dismissed as a “conspiracy theory” the possibility of a Wuhan lab accident on a Feb. 9, 2020, podcast hosted by Newt Gingrich. Afterward, Fauci reversed himself, stating in several interviews that he had always kept an open mind.

Later reports zeroed in on Fauci’s secret involvement in prominent March 2020 research, called the “proximal origin” paper, that turned public and scientific sentiment against the possibility of a lab accident. “Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus,” the paper concluded, adding, “We do not believe that any type of laboratory-based scenario is plausible.” Published in the prestigious Nature Medicine journal, the “proximal origin” paper is the most-cited scientific paper of 2020.

Subsequent emails showed that Fauci helped guide the “proximal origin” paper to publication, as congressional probers found, “without revealing that he had been involved with its creation and had even, according to the emails, given it his approval.”

Distancing himself from his own emails, Fauci later told the Times that he wasn’t sure he even got around to reading the paper. But the House later released a multiday deposition of Fauci in which he was asked about his involvement in the “proximal origin” paper. Under oath, Fauci admitted to having received and read several drafts of the paper.

But while dissembling to the media is not a crime, lying to Congress is illegal. And the Department of Justice has two referrals from Congress already requesting that Fauci be prosecuted for lying under oath.

Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Lies as legal jeopardy

Fauci’s habit of bending the truth, as some see it, was notably on display at a July 2021 Senate hearing when Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican, bored into the funding Fauci approved for gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. While Fauci attempted to downplay his financial involvement with the Chinese government lab, reports were already percolating.

In April 2020, Newsweek reported that Fauci had approved a grant for risky gain-of-function virus research at the Wuhan lab. The Washington Post editorial board in March 2021 then called for an independent investigation into EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit funded by the Fauci-run National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases. With this grant, EcoHealth subcontracted research to the Chinese, the Post noted, to do experiments involving “modifying viral genomes to give them new properties, including the ability to infect lung cells of laboratory mice that had been genetically modified to respond as human respiratory cells would.”

Fox News reported Sunday that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has barred EcoHealth Alliance Inc. and its former president, Dr. Peter Daszak, from receiving federal funds for five years. EcoHealth allegedly failed to report dangerous gain-of-function experiments to the government, which eventually led to the five-year ban.

A month before Fauci’s hearing with Paul, Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs confirmed that U.S.-funded research at the WIV consisted of gain-of-function virus research that could have started the pandemic. “[I]t is clear that the NIH co-funded research at the WIV that deserves scrutiny under the hypothesis of a laboratory-related release of the virus.” At that time, Sachs led a commission formed by a British medical journal, the Lancet, to investigate how the pandemic began.

But when Paul began grilling Fauci about these details and called him out for what he characterized as evasive answers, Fauci pointed the finger back at Paul. “If anybody is lying here, Senator, it is you,” Fauci said. Paul then sent a criminal referral to the Department of Justice requesting that it investigate whether Fauci had committed perjury.

“He definitely misled the senator,” said former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield. When Redfield looked at all the evidence, including still-classified information, he said the weight falls in the direction of a lab accident. “Fauci manipulated the public to believe there was only one possible cause for the pandemic, a natural spillover.”

Months after Paul’s referral to the Justice Department, liberal news nonprofit ProPublica released new documents confirming the Wuhan lab had conducted such studies. “Grant money for the controversial experiment came from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is headed by Anthony Fauci,” ProPublica reported on September 9, 2021.

“NIH admits funding risky virus research in Wuhan,” Vanity Fair reported a week after ProPublica, referring to a letter the NIH sent to Congress.

Paul sent a second referral to the Department of Justice in July 2023, reiterating his demand that Fauci be investigated. At that time, House investigators released emails showing that in early 2020, Fauci admitted that scientists were concerned the COVID virus had been engineered and researchers in Wuhan were engaged in gain-of-function research.

“Everything he has been telling us from the very beginning has been a lie,” Paul told Fox News. “We have documented it’s a lie, and it’s a felony to lie to Congress.”

Biden’s pardon negates the two Senate referrals for criminal activity. But future hearings could still require Fauci to respond to evidence that he may have perjured himself and open him up to future prosecution if he stands by statements that can be proven to be false.

Hiding the use of private email

Another area of potential inquiry is Fauci’s congressional testimony last summer denying his use of private email to conduct official business. “Let me state for the record that to the best of my knowledge, I have never conducted official business via my personal email,” Fauci wrote in his sworn statement to Congress.

This testimony seemed to contradict evidence in a 35-page memo compiled by Republican investigative staff. One email showed Fauci’s second in command, Dr. David Morens, suggesting that someone speak with Fauci through an unofficial, private channel. In another email, Morens wrote that he would contact Fauci on Gmail.

After Fauci’s testimony, the writer of this article reported in the DisInformation Chronicle that Morens had connected KFF Health News reporter Arthur Allen with Fauci on Fauci’s private email back in May 2021. The NIH did not respond to comment about Fauci’s use of private email to conduct government business with reporters.

In a second example, the New York Post reported that the watchdog group the White Coat Waste Project accused Fauci of lying to Congress about his private email use after the group released documents showing Fauci was back-channeling with a Washington Post reporter on his private email.

“I will send you an e-mail via my gmail account,” Fauci wrote in an email dated Oct. 29, 2021, to Washington Post reporter Yasmeen Abutaleb.

Fauci’s lawyer told the Post that Fauci was discussing a personal matter with the Washington Post reporter, although he did not explain what this personal matter was.

Justin Goodman, senior vice president at the White Coat Waste Project, said the evidence is clear that Fauci contacted the Washington Post about issues regarding his NIH work and then denied it to Congress. “He should be prosecuted, not pardoned.”

Follow the money

Congressional hearings might also delve into Fauci’s involvement in research misconduct with the “proximal origin” paper and a grant he approved for the paper’s lead author, Scripps Research Institute’s Kristian Andersen.

“There needs to be a criminal investigation of this grant and paper,” said a former law enforcement official who has worked with congressional staff investigating Fauci and his grants. “Nobody inside the executive branch has taken ownership of this.”

'It’s been a huge paradigm shift to see a hero actually turn into a villain.'

Shortly after the COVID virus outbreak, Fauci began discussing with several virologists, including Andersen, how the pandemic started. In a Feb. 1, 2020, email, Andersen wrote to Fauci that he had analyzed the COVID virus genetic sequence and “some of the features (potentially) look engineered.” Andersen added that while opinions could change, he and other virologists felt the virus was not natural or consistent with “expectations with evolutionary theory.”

Later that same day, Fauci held a phone call with Andersen and other virologists and then emailed that the scientists were suspicious that a “mutation was intentionally inserted” into the virus. Other emails show that Fauci was concerned that his funding for research in China may have led to the COVID virus.

Despite their initial suspicions, Andersen and other virologists reversed course six weeks later and published the “proximal origin” paper on March 16, 2020, that absolved Fauci of funding research that led to the pandemic. Fauci then promoted the Andersen “proximal origin” paper to reporters at a White House briefing on April 17 without disclosing that he had helped marshal the study into publication.

A month later, Fauci signed off on an $8.9 million grant to Kristian Andersen. Both Andersen and Fauci have denied that the grant was quid pro quo for Andersen publishing the “proximal origin” paper that absolved Fauci, but the group Biosafety Now has called twice for the paper to be retracted.

“It is imperative that this clearly fraudulent and clearly damaging paper be removed from the scientific literature,” reads an online petition signed by over 5,000 scientists.

Richard Ebright, a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Rutgers University and co-founder of Biosafety Now, said that Fauci should have been prosecuted for “criminal conspiracy” for his secret involvement in the “proximal origin” paper. Ebright added that the grant Fauci gave to Andersen after he published the paper likely also involved criminal behavior.

With Republicans running both the Senate and House, investigations of Fauci will likely continue as members resume digging into any NIH culpability in funding research that started the pandemic. Trump’s CIA nominee, John Ratcliffe, told House members during a 2023 hearing that classified intelligence points toward a lab accident. Ratcliffe is likely to be confirmed, and a Trump transition team source said he would likely then declassify that information, further undermining Fauci’s claims that the pandemic started from a natural spillover.

Ongoing investigations of Fauci, RCI has been told, will only further erode his credibility, even if criminal charges can no longer be filed. “This pardon means he can no longer be brought to justice,” said an adviser to the Trump transition team. “But it guarantees he will be further exposed.”

“I trusted everything Fauci said during the pandemic, and I did everything he told me,” said Bri Dressen, a former preschool teacher in Saratoga Springs, Utah. “I masked, wiped down my groceries with alcohol, kept my kids away from other kids so they wouldn’t catch the virus, and then I got vaccinated.” Dressen ended up injured by AstraZeneca’s vaccine as a volunteer in the company’s clinical trial and founded React19.org, whose 36,000 members advocate on behalf of victims of COVID vaccine harm.

“It was the steepest learning curve in my entire life. The people in authority like Fauci are the ones I shouldn’t have trusted,” Dressen said. “It’s been a huge paradigm shift to see a hero actually turn into a villain.”

Editor’s note: This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.

Biden Shatters Democrats’ Sacred Norms To Turn Pardons Into ‘Get Out Of Jail Free’ Cards

Remember when Democrats impeached a president because he asked the leader of a notoriously corrupt country about corruption as it related to a now-demonstrably corrupt Joe Biden? Those were good times. Biden in his final hours as president left everything on the field, issuing preemptive criminal pardons of not only his favorite little warmongress Liz […]

Happy Liberation Day, America: Trump Outlines Optimistic Vision in Second Inaugural Address

Donald Trump is back and so is America. "For American citizens, Jan. 20, 2025 is Liberation Day," Trump said Monday after being sworn in as the 47th president of the United States and the first commander in chief since 2017 to possess the cognitive fitness required of the office. "After all we have been through together, we stand on the verge of the four greatest years in American history."

The post Happy Liberation Day, America: Trump Outlines Optimistic Vision in Second Inaugural Address appeared first on .