Covid Cover-Up? Dr. Anthony Fauci Accused of Lying to Congress About Personal Emails: Report

Dr. Anthony Fauci, former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), faces accusations of lying to Congress about using his personal email for official business during a House hearing on the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a June 2024 Congressional hearing, Fauci denied using his private email for government matters when questioned by House Representative Nicole Malliotakis. However, email exchanges between Fauci and Washington Post journalist Yasmeen Abutaleb, released by the watchdog group White Coat Waste Project, suggest otherwise.

In an email dated October 29, 2021, Fauci wrote, “I will send you an email via my gmail account,” contradicting his statement to Congress, Knewz.com reported.

The emails indicate that Fauci used his personal email to discuss his alleged approval of taxpayer-funded research on dogs in Tunisia, a topic that drew significant public outrage. Fauci shared articles attempting to debunk the allegations against him with the journalist, who was reportedly sympathetic to him during the media backlash over the beagle experiments.

The White Coat Waste Project shared the email correspondence with the New York Post. Anthony Bellotti, founder and president of the watchdog group, stated, "We’ve followed the money and exposed how Fauci lied under oath about not funding gain-of-function at the Wuhan animal lab, that he lied about not bankrolling beagle torture in Tunisia, and, now, that he broke federal law by using his personal email to evade [Freedom of Information Act] requests about Beaglegate [the beagle puppy controversy] and secretly communicate with a Washington Post reporter who then published NIH disinformation to protect him and discredit us."

In 2021, the watchdog group revealed a Fauci-approved NIAID grant to a Tunisian lab for researching zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis using beagle puppies. Photos showing puppies in small cages, allegedly drugged and exposed to sandflies sparked widespread public dissent and a bipartisan letter from 24 members of Congress expressing concern over taxpayer-funded experiments on dogs.

The NIAID responded in October 2021, clarifying that the controversial photos were from a manuscript that mistakenly cited NIAID support. The NIAID stated it funded a separate project on a leishmaniasis vaccine, which poses a threat to US military personnel and dogs in endemic areas.

In his memoir, On Call: A Doctor’s Journey in Public Service, Fauci dismissed the beagle research allegations as "lies" and "lunacy" from the "far right." However, during the June 2024 Congressional hearing, Fauci admitted signing off on the beagle experiments, stating they were approved through strict regulatory processes.

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Fauci's attorney, David Schertler, argued that the email to Abutaleb concerned a "personal matter" and did not constitute official business. Despite this, Bellotti maintained that the email correspondence proves Fauci “broke federal law.”

The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic had previously found evidence that Dr. David Morens, Fauci's former senior advisor, used a private email account to avoid Freedom of Information Act requests, including correspondence with Dr. Peter Daszak of EcoHealth Alliance, which received NIH funding for gain-of-function experiments at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The White Coat Waste Project continues to allege that Fauci lied about the Wuhan funding under oath, calling for Congress to hold him accountable for his actions.