President Trump on Monday said he has not spoken to Attorney General Todd Blanche or Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., about prosecuting Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former top infectious disease official.
“I have not spoken to them about that, no,” Trump told Semafor’s Shelby Talcott in the Oval Office.
The statement comes as Republicans intensify their pressure on the Justice Department to pursue criminal charges against Fauci, who has become a lightning rod for conservative criticism over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Contempt referral and Fifth Amendment
Last Thursday, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, led by Republicans, approved a resolution holding Fauci in contempt of Congress. That vote followed a hearing where Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times, declining to answer lawmakers’ questions about the origins of the virus and his communications with other officials.
Shortly after the committee vote, staffers from Sen. Rand Paul’s office delivered a criminal referral to the Justice Department, recommending prosecution. Paul, the panel’s chair, emphasized that the referral bypasses the usual legislative process, noting it doesn’t require House approval or the president’s signature.
The DOJ, now under Blanche, who was sworn in as attorney general last week, will decide whether to act on the referral. The Hill has reached out to the DOJ for comment.
Newly released texts add fuel
Also on Monday, Paul and Sen. Ron Johnson released a trove of text messages from Fauci’s government-issued phone, including a January 2021 exchange where he said the second COVID-19 vaccine dose could “theoretically” be linked to miscarriage in the first trimester. The messages were sent to then-Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and then-CDC Director Rochelle Walensky.
In the same thread, Fauci noted there were “no data or theoretical reason to believe that vaccinating early versus later in pregnancy would be preferred.” A week later, he publicly stated that the FDA had found “no red flags” among more than 10,000 pregnant women enrolled in vaccine trials at that point.
Fauci had previously said he would rather take the vaccine than risk getting COVID-19 while pregnant, citing the virus’s adverse effects on pregnancy outcomes. Those comments were made to Dr. Howard Bauchner, then editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Republican backlash
The release of the texts—part of a larger cache of 34,000 messages and 522 voicemails—sparked immediate condemnation from Republican lawmakers. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida called the messages “evil,” claiming she knows several women who miscarried after receiving the vaccine, and accused Fauci of committing “a crime against humanity.”
Luna’s remarks echoed a broader Republican narrative that Fauci misled the public about vaccine risks, a charge his defenders dispute, noting that the theoretical risk was not confirmed and that COVID-19 itself poses significant dangers to pregnant women.
The controversy comes as Trump has separately moved to overhaul vaccine policy, including slashing the childhood vaccine schedule, a decision that has drawn sharp criticism from pediatricians. The White House has also faced questions about its stance on vaccine mandates and public health messaging.
Blanche, for his part, has vowed to maintain independence at the Justice Department, though skeptics have questioned his ability to resist political pressure from the White House. His handling of the Fauci referral will be a key test of that pledge.
