Anthony Fauci pleaded the Fifth roughly 100 times during a congressional hearing. Now the former government health czar wants everyday Americans to chip in for his lawyer bills.
The 85-year-old retired bureaucrat, who once pulled in over $480,000 annually as the highest-paid employee in the entire federal government, has launched a shiny new legal defense fund to cover mounting attorney fees. This despite the fact that his personal fortune has ballooned to an estimated $12.5 million since leaving public service, according to reports. On top of that, he collects a federal pension so generous that OpenTheBooks CEO Adam Andrzejewski says it rivals what a sitting president earns.
So why is a multimillionaire with a presidential-level pension passing around the collection plate? Because the legal heat is getting absolutely scorching.
Here is the rundown. Fauci spent almost four decades running the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He became a household name during COVID and retired in 2022. But retirement has been anything but peaceful. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul has been pushing the Justice Department to go after him. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier slapped him with a subpoena as part of a probe into whether Fauci personally cashed in on pandemic-era health guidance. And a Senate committee formally referred him to the DOJ for potential criminal prosecution tied to obstructing Congress.
That referral came shortly after Fauci's jaw-dropping July appearance before lawmakers, where he invoked his Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination around 100 times. He simply refused to engage with question after question about his pandemic decisions. That stonewalling led directly to an August 6 contempt vote.
Former President Joe Biden tried to throw Fauci a lifeline back in January 2025, granting him a preemptive pardon covering possible federal offenses connected to his government work. But that pardon clearly has not stopped the investigations from piling up.
Now things are getting even spicier. Senate investigators have gotten their hands on a copy of Fauci's government-issued iPhone from his tenure at the Department of Health and Human Services. The device was handed over to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, led by Wisconsin Republican Ron Johnson. The senator confirmed the transfer publicly, writing that he hopes the phone will shed light on the many questions Fauci refused to address during testimony.
The freshly minted defense fund website says all donations go straight toward covering legal representation and administrative costs. Fauci maintains he did nothing wrong. Democrats insist the entire investigation is politically driven. Republicans counter that he needs to face real consequences.
Let us get this straight. A man worth $12.5 million, collecting a pension that would make most Americans weep, who already received a presidential pardon, now needs YOUR money to pay his lawyers. That is truly Washington operating at peak performance.
Meanwhile, somewhere in a Senate office, investigators are scrolling through his old iPhone. Stay tuned, because whatever is on that device could change everything.
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