Republican Sen. Rand Paul is recommending the top prosecutor in Washington, D.C., pursue an investigation and possible criminal charges against Dr. Anthony Fauci for allegedly lying under oath about COVID-19 origins.

Paul sent a letter to D.C. U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves Tuesday, demanding an investigation into Fauci for allegedly committing perjury during a congressional hearing in 2021 when he said that COVID did not come from a Chinese lab.

‘Dr. Fauci testified that ‘the NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain-of function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.’ In a subsequent hearing, I warned Dr. Fauci of the criminal implications of lying to Congress and offered him an opportunity to recant his previous statements,’ writes Paul in the letter exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com.

‘In response, Dr. Fauci stated that he had ‘never lied before the Congress’ and ‘d[id] not retract that statement.’ Dr. Fauci’s testimony is inconsistent with facts that have since come to light,’ the senator continues.

The move comes just weeks after he submitted an ‘official criminal referral’ to the Department of Justice. An aide to Paul confirmed to DailyMail.com that the DOJ never responded.

The referral relates to Fauci's previous testimony on the coronavirus and its potential origins from a Chinese lab with Paul suggesting Fauci lied under oath. He is pictured in November '22

The referral relates to Fauci’s previous testimony on the coronavirus and its potential origins from a Chinese lab with Paul suggesting Fauci lied under oath. He is pictured in November ’22

Perjury is a federal offense that carries up to five years in prison.

‘Before Congress, Dr. Fauci denied funding gain-of-function research, to the press he claims to have a dispassionate view on the lab leak hypothesis, and in private he acknowledges gain-of-function research at WIV to his colleagues  His own colleagues have acknowledged Dr. Fauci’s inconsistency,’ continues Paul in the letter to Graves. 

‘A congressional hearing, however, is not the place for a public servant to play political games – especially when the health and well-being of American citizens is on the line.’

Paul previously wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland on July 14 and July 23 calling for an investigation into whether Fauci lied under oath over his knowledge of dangerous virus research that was taking place at the Wuhan lab, in China. 

In July 2021, Dr Fauci testified how his former department ‘has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.’

Gain-of-function research refers to a type of scientific investigation conducted on  viruses, with the purpose of enhancing their transmissibility or virulence. 

The aim is to understand how viruses evolve and potentially predict and prepare for future disease outbreaks, but also raises concerns regarding biosafety and biosecurity.

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 such research grants.

On July 13, 2023 the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic released emails sent by Fauci about a conference call regarding the origins of COVID attended by Dr. Francis Collins, former director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, and other researchers.

In one email, 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.

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'

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’

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.’

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 in fact receive NIH funding, Paul said in his letter to AG Garland.

Paul drew attention to the February 2020 email in which Fauci details a call between British medical researcher Jeremy Farrar, who was director of the Wellcome Trust at the time. 

On the call, Fauci, along with Francis Collins, former director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, and other ‘highly credible’ scientists shared concerns about the ‘fact upon viewing the sequences of several isolates of the nCoV, there were mutations in the virus that would be most unusual to have evolved naturally in the bats and that there was a suspicion that this mutation was intentionally inserted.’

‘The suspicion was heightened by the fact that scientists in Wuhan University are known to have been working on gain-of-function experiments to determine the molecular mechanisms associated with bat viruses adapting to human infection, and the outbreak originated in Wuhan,’ Fauci wrote in the un-redacted email..

‘This directly contradicts everything he said in committee hearing to me, denying absolutely that they funded any gain of function, and it’s absolutely a lie. That’s why I sent an official criminal referral to the DOJ,’ Paul wrote on Twitter.

In July, Paul told Fauci that lying to Congress was a federal crime and suggested he had lied about the COVID-19 gain-of-function research conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.

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?'

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 became animated during the exchange, as he pointed his fingers at Paul for being a 'liar'

Fauci became animated during the exchange, as he pointed his fingers at Paul for being a ‘liar’

Fauci went on to insist he ‘never lied before Congress’ during previous testimony in May.

‘You don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Fauci told Paul.

Paul, who studied at the Duke University School of Medicine said that a paper that credited the NIH saw the author take two bat coronavirus spike proteins to combine them creating a new virus, not naturally found in nature but would spread in humans, Paul said in a July congressional hearing.

‘Viruses that in nature only infect animals were manipulated in the Wuhan lab to gain the function of infecting humans,’ he said.

‘They took animal viruses that only occur in animals, and they increased their transmissibility to humans. How you can say that’s not gain of function – it’s a dance, and you’re dancing around this because you’re trying to obscure responsibility for 4 million people dying around the world from a pandemic.’ 

Fauci said the paper that Paul has been referring to ‘was judged by qualified staff up and down the chain as not being gain of function.’

But the newly released emails show Fauci referring to the research by scientists at Wuhan University as ‘gain-of-function experiments’.

FBI Director Christopher Wray confirmed that a leak from a laboratory in the central Chinese city of Wuhan likely caused the COVID pandemic.

‘The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan,’ Wray said in February.

In June, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) determined that the Wuhan Institute of Virology and Wuhan University received NIH funding, Paul also noted in his letter to Garland.

It said: ‘The report noted that NIH funded the WIV’s project ‘Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence’ and included ‘genetic experiments to combine naturally occurring bat coronaviruses with SARS and MERS viruses, resulting in hybridized coronavirus strains.’

‘GAO also found that NIH funded the Wuhan University’s collaboration with WIV on viral detection in the Yunnan province.’

As the former head of the NIH, Fauci presided over the allocation of taxpayer-funded grants for virus-enhancing research at the WIV years before the pandemic began.

A federal watchdog found the NIH ‘did not effectively monitor’ those experiments or check whether they involved pathogens with pandemic risk.

The Energy Department, FBI and several government committees believe the virus leaked from a lab, pointing to a number of coincidences and indirect evidence.

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