Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) isn’t letting up on pursuing questions about Dr. Anthony Fauci.
As we reported on Friday, Paul made another criminal referral to the Department of Justice this week for Fauci “lying to Congress when he denied the NIH was funding gain-of-function research in Wuhan.” RedState has written at great length about this topic.
But those aren’t the only questions that he’s continuing to raise about Fauci.
Fauci reportedly retired at the end of last year, stepping down as the head of NIAID. After 54 years in government, he was the highest-paid government official. Yet according to Paul, he’s still getting a taxpayer-reimbursed “limo driver security detail.”On top of that, the Biden administration hasn’t exactly been straightforward when questioned about what was going on here.
Paul appeared on Jesse Watters’ show and said that he tried to get details about Fauci’s current employment status and the special benefits that he appeared to be getting. Paul said he demanded information from HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. Fox put in a FOIA request to the U.S. Marshals.
On “Jesse Watters Primetime,” host Jesse Watters said a source’s tip led to a FOIA request to the US Marshals that revealed the security detail for Fauci.
Watters reported the documents also stated Fauci’s perks include limousine transportation.
“HHS actually came back to us and said they haven’t been paying for it since January. But then we discovered that Fox did a Freedom of Information Act and a judge forced them to say that, well, while HHS wasn’t directly funding it, the US Marshals were funding it,” he said.
Paul said the federal officials told him they weren’t directly paying for it, but that, in the senator’s words, “somebody else is doing it and then we’re reimbursing them.”
“So it’s a terrible example of the government lying to its representatives and to the people. But also, why is a retired guy, the only retired official I know of that gets this kind of treatment is a former president,” Paul added.
“So I have no idea why this bureaucrat still has a limo driver security detail.”
Paul took a jab at Fauci asking if he was still getting free legal representation as well, making the point that he might need it sometime soon.
Paul noted that Fauci was a “rich man,” saying his wealth increased by 30 percent during the pandemic. “I think he should pay for his own security detail and his own legal defense if he needs one,” Paul said.
If he’s retired, why are we still paying for this? Why is he getting a benefit that no other retired official except a president would get? He certainly has the money to pay for security for himself, and what a thought — he could drive himself. He’s also now working for Georgetown University, which seems willing to take on the controversy of having him on staff. So why aren’t they paying for this?
But beyond that, once again, what we see from the Biden team is that continuing lack of transparency when they’re caught doing problematic things.