As RedState’s Scott Hounsell was the first to note, it sure seems like Dr. Anthony Fauci lied to Congress when he claimed in a Senate hearing in May 2021 that the US wasn’t funding gain-of-function research on coronaviruses in China. We documented that NIH/NIAID grant funding was used to conduct gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology through awards granted by PREDICT and EcoHealth Alliance, and also through collaborative research projects undertaken by Dr. Ralph Baric at UNC-Chapel Hill and Dr. Shi Zhengli at Wuhan.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) had the opportunity on Tuesday to again grill Fauci on the topic, even warning him that lying to Congress is a crime, and Fauci absolutely protested far too much, as we covered earlier.

Fortunately for all of us, Sen. Paul isn’t one of those legislators who makes a stink about an issue and then refuses to take steps to actually resolve the issue. Sen. Paul told Hannity Tuesday night that he was “seeking a criminal referral because [Fauci] has lied to Congress.”

First Sen. Paul explained why, in his opinion, Fauci came at him so hard during the hearing:

[H]e realizes that once the public figures out that they were doing very, very dangerous research there…taking animal viruses and making them more transmissible into humans.

Once everybody puts this together, he realizes where the blame is going to attach. He has at least tangential responsibility. If this came from the lab that he was funding, my goodness, can you imagine the moral culpability the man has?

Sen. Paul then referenced the Fauci emails that were produced through various Freedom of Information Act requests, noting that they show Fauci’s assistant warning him, “Oh, no, this is gain-of-function research” and that a leading virology researcher told Fauci that he and three of his colleagues agreed that SARS-CoV-2 looked like a virus that was manipulated in a lab. Yet, as we reported in June, instead of being alarmed and wanting to get to the bottom of where the virus originated, Fauci instead demanded that the researcher get on the phone with him and EcoHealth Alliance’s Peter Daszak. Just a few weeks later, the researcher – Kristian Andersen from the Scripps Institute – helped lead the drafting and publishing of a paper claiming there was no way the virus could have been engineered and that it was absolutely a natural transfer.

After reminding the audience that Sen. Paul led off his questioning of Fauci by “emphasizing [that] federal law makes lying to Congress a felony punishable by up to five years in prison,” Hannity asked Sen. Paul whether he believed Fauci had broken the law and lied to Congress. Sen. Paul replied:

“Yes, and I will be sending a letter to the DOJ asking for a criminal referral because he has lied to Congress. We have scientists that will line up by the dozens to say that the research he was funding was gain-of-function.”

Fauci doesn’t deserve all the blame for the pandemic, Paul said, but in his opinion, Fauci lied to Congress and should face the consequences for that.

It shouldn’t be so astounding that a Member of Congress is determined to get to the truth and hold those who’ve done wrong accountable, but it is. Thank goodness at least one person will stand up against the bully bureaucrats and not back down.