(CBrief) – Sen. Rand Paul is continuing his legal pursuit of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the now-retired chief of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who was the face of the country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Paul has accused Fauci of lying to Congress over his claim that the U.S. government never funded dangerous gain-of-function research in China, where the outbreak reportedly began.

In 2021, Fauci testified before a Senate committee where the Kentucky Republican was a member and said under oath that the U.S. “has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology” in Wuhan, China.

But in newly released emails dated February 1, 2020, the then-NIAID director wrote that “scientists in Wuhan University are known to have been working on gain-of-function experiments to determine that molecular mechanisms associated with bat viruses adapting to human infection, and the outbreak originated in Wuhan.”

While those emails do not contain smoking gun evidence of guilt, Fauci, under oath, denied that the National Institutes of Health, under which his agency fell, did not fund such research.

However, “the Government Accountability Office (GAO) determined last month that the Wuhan Institute of Virology and Wuhan University did receive NIH funding,” according to the UK’s Daily Mail.

In a tweet, Paul said he had referred Fauci — again — to the Department of Justice to pursue a criminal investigation for allegedly lying to Congress.

“I’ve referred Anthony Fauci to the DOJ (again) for lying to Congress when he denied the NIH was funding of gain-of-function research in Wuhan,” he wrote.

“Last week’s release of an email in which Fauci confirms that research in Wuhan was gain-of-function adds to an email where his assistants label it GoF as well. Likely nothing more conclusive than catching a liar lying with his own words!” he added.

conservativebrief.com/paul-refers-75176/