Why President Biden pardoned Anthony Fauci

In one of his final acts before leaving the White House Monday, President Joe Biden issued a preemptive pardon to Dr. Anthony Fauci, his former chief medical adviser.

Fauci helped lead the federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic and directed the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, for nearly four decades. He served under President Trump during his first term and also under Biden before retiring in 2022.

Biden issued preemptive pardons for Fauci and a host of others, including Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and congressional members of the committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection. Biden also pardoned the U.S. Capitol and Washington D.C. police officers who testified before the congressional committee, and members of his own family.

In announcing the pardons, Biden said they should not be viewed as a tacit admission that they had violated any laws. The pardons prevent Fauci and the others from facing prosecution in the future.

“The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that any individual engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense,” Biden said in a statement. “Our nation owes these public servants a debt of gratitude for their tireless commitment to our country.”

Fauci served as one of the most visible faces of the government’s response to the pandemic. He earned praise from supporters for steady leadership and guidance in response to an unprecedented public health threat, but some Republicans blasted him for mask mandates and his more vocal critics suggested he should be prosecuted.

Fauci also told a House committee in June that he and his family have received death threats.

Biden praised Fauci’s contributions in his announcement of the pardons.

“For more than half a century, Dr. Fauci served our country,” Biden said in his statement. “He saved countless lives by managing the government’s response to pressing health crises, including HIV/AIDS, as well as the Ebola and Zika viruses. During his tenure as my Chief Medical Advisor, he helped the country tackle a once-in-a-century pandemic. The United States is safer and healthier because of him.”

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After taking office Monday night, Trump announced the pardon of nearly 1,500 people charged in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Fauci’s response

In response to his pardon, Fauci issued a statement Monday saying that he has committed no crimes, but he said, “I acknowledge and appreciate the action that President Biden has taken on my behalf.”

“Despite the accomplishments that my colleagues and I achieved over my long career of public service, I have been the subject of politically motivated threats of investigation and prosecution," Fauci said in his statement.

"There is absolutely no basis for these threats. Let me be perfectly clear: I have committed no crime and there are no possible grounds for any allegation or threat of criminal investigation or prosecution of me,” Fauci said. “The fact is, however, that the mere articulation of these baseless threats, and the potential that they will be acted upon, create immeasurable and intolerable distress for me and my family."

In an interview with Jonathan Karl of ABC News, Fauci said that he accepts and appreciates the pardon from Biden. “

“Let me be perfectly clear, Jon, I have committed no crime, you know that, and there are no possible grounds for any allegation or threat of criminal investigation or prosecution of me,” Fauci told ABC News.

Fauci served in the NIH under seven presidents; he took over NIAID under then-President Ronald Reagan. Biden has said that one of his first calls after winning the election was to ask Fauci to be his chief medical adviser.

In explaining the pardons, Biden said he believes in the rule of law, “but these are exceptional circumstances, and I cannot in good conscience do nothing.”

He also noted that he wanted to protect Fauci, Milley and the others from facing expensive legal costs in the future.

“Baseless and politically motivated investigations wreak havoc on the lives, safety, and financial security of targeted individuals and their families,” Biden said in his statement. “Even when individuals have done nothing wrong—and in fact have done the right thing—and will ultimately be exonerated, the mere fact of being investigated or prosecuted can irreparably damage reputations and finances.”

Fauci has staunchly defended the NIH’s work to protect Americans during the pandemic. In testimony before the House committee in June, Fauci pointed to a Commonwealth Fund study that estimated the development of COVID-19 vaccines prevented more than 18 million hospitalizations and more than 3 million deaths. He noted that the NIAID made critical contributions to the development of the vaccines.

Criticism of pardons

Trump told Kristen Welker of NBC News via text that the pardons were “disgraceful. Many are guilty of MAJOR CRIMES!” The response didn’t single out Fauci.

Pam Bondi, Trump’s nominee to serve as the U.S. Attorney General, said at a Senate hearing last week that “no one should be prosecuted for political purposes,” the Associated Press reported.

Still, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s nominee to lead the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, has previously said the prosecution of Fauci should be considered, The Washington Post reported. Kennedy also wrote a critical book on Fauci published in 2021: “The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health.”

Biden’s pardon angered Fauci’s critics. U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, wrote in a post on X, “If there was ever any doubt as to who bears responsibility for the COVID pandemic, Biden’s pardon of Fauci forever seals the deal.”

Paul has suggested that the U.S. government has withheld information about research at a laboratory in China that developed COVID-19, and the virus leaked from the lab. He vowed to continue investigating the “coverup” and said Fauci “will go down in history as the first government scientist to be preemptively pardoned for a crime.”

The U.S. Department of Justice notes on its website that a presidential pardon issued before an individual is charged or convicted is “highly unusual” but not unprecedented.

In probably the most famous case, President Gerald Ford pardoned former President Richard Nixon after he resigned from office. President Jimmy Carter issued pardons for those who evaded the draft during the Vietnam War, and President George H.W. Bush pardoned Caspar Weinberger, the former defense secretary charged with lying about the Iran-Contra affair after resigning.