Sen. Paul Announces He Is Making ‘Criminal Referral’ To DOJ For Fauci ‘Lying To Congress’

During an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity on Tuesday night, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said he would be referring Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), to the Department of Justice for a criminal investigation over Fauci allegedly lying to Congress.

“You kicked off your questioning of Dr. Fauci emphasizing federal law makes lying to Congress a felony punishable by up to five years in prison,” Hannity said. “Is it your belief based on the evidence, senator, that he lied before Congress and broke the law?”

“Yes, and I will be sending a letter to the Department of Justice asking for a criminal referral because he has lied to Congress,” Paul answered.

Rand Paul says he will be sending a criminal referral letter to the DOJ about Fauci pic.twitter.com/B17FZCAVoW

— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) July 21, 2021

Paul’s announcement comes after he had a heated exchange with Fauci during a Senate hearing on Tuesday when Paul suggested Fauci lied about whether the National Institutes of Health-funded gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

“On your last trip to our committee on May 11, you stated that the NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” Paul said to Fauci. He then referenced a paper by Dr. Shi Zhengli of the Wuhan Virology Lab, which claimed the NIH did fund her research into SARS-related coronaviruses and asked Fauci if he would like to retract his previous statements.

“Senator Paul, I have never lied before the Congress, and I do not retract that statement,” Fauci responded. “This paper that you are referring was judged by qualified staff up and down the chain as not being gain-of-function.”

Paul interjected, “You take an animal virus and you increase transmissibility to human, you’re saying that is not gain of function?”

“That is correct,” Fauci angrily replied. “Senator Paul, you do not know what you are talking about, quite frankly, and I want to say that officially. You do not know what you are talking about!”

WATCH: Complete exchange between Dr. Anthony Fauci and Senator @RandPaul.

Dr. Fauci: "Senator Paul, you do not know what you are talking about, quite frankly, and I want to say that officially. You do not know what you are talking about." pic.twitter.com/2wFbAxicI2

— CSPAN (@cspan) July 20, 2021