Oversight Project Calls for Fauci Prosecution Before Deadline, Note Invalid Autopen Pardon
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 7, 2026
Washington, D.C.– The Oversight Project announced that Dr. Anthony Fauci, former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), can and should be prosecuted. Dr. Fauci was pardoned from any offenses dating back to 2014 by the Autopen on former President Biden’s last day in office. President Trump has declared the Autopen’s actions to be null and void.
Dr. Fauci testified before the Senate Committee on Health, Labor, and Pensions on May 11, 2021. In that hearing, he unequivocally stated, “the NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.” Former Acting NIH Director Dr. Lawrence Tabak later told the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic in 2024 that the NIH did, in fact, fund gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China. The statute of limitations on perjury before Congress is five years.
During the Oversight Project’s investigation into the Autopen, we reported that one of the most controversial acts of clemency at the end of the Biden Presidency included the preemptive pardon of Dr. Fauci. Dr. Fauci should be prosecuted for perjury, Covid-19 origin cover-up, and conspiracy to hide records and violate FOIA laws. The House Oversight Committee found in 2025 that President Biden suffered from significant mental and physical decline while in office and that autopenned pardons and commutations issued in the final days of the Biden presidency–including Dr. Fauci’s–were signed “without confirmed presidential authorization or proper documentation.” Since the pardon power belongs solely to the President, President Biden’s mental fitness and the open questions of whether he actually issued the pardon to Dr. Fauci and others in the final days of his presidency renders these pardons, at a minimum, legally dubious.
Oversight Project President Mike Howell gave this statement:
“Fauci does not have a pardon, he has a document from the autopen that says pardon on it. Our investigation discovered the widespread use of the autopen in the Biden White House and laid the legal foundation for the illegitimacy of those documents. President Trump has agreed, calling it the scandal of the century and declaring these autopen documents to be null, void, and of no further force or effect. The mandate for accountability will largely be judged by whether Fauci is met with accountability.”
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The Oversight Project has published 4 reports and one legal memo on the Biden Autopen Presidency:
The Autopen Presidency Part I: Pardons and Commutations
The Autopen Presidency Part II: Executive Orders
The Autopen Presidency Part III: Autopen Clemency While Biden Was in DC
The Autopen Presidency Part IV: Comprehensive Summary of Autopen Use
Other Autopen-Related Press Releases: