In the waning days of mentally impaired Joe Biden’s failed presidency, his handlers rushed through a large number of criminal pardons that skipped the president’s desk and went right to the autopen station. Biden likely wasn’t even aware of half or most of the people “he” pardoned. Compounding this curious situation, he didn’t pardon many for specific convictions, alleged crimes, or narrow time periods. Rather, the pardons were retroactive and all-encompassing, going as far back as 10 years prior.
On Dec. 12, 2024, Biden’s holiday shopping list included 39 pardons. On Jan. 19, 2025, the Biden administration issued over 19 pardons, including several Biden family members, the entire “Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol,” and one Anthony Fauci.
In the clemency warrant that pardons Fauci, it states that he is pardoned, “For any offenses against the United States which he may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014, through the date of this pardon arising from or in any manner related to his service as Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force or the White House COVID-19 Response Team, or as Chief Medical Advisor to the President.”
There is no proof one way or the other that Biden personally reviewed this pardon before it was signed, or whether he signed it personally. We are left to presume the autopen did the deed.
This all raises two questions: First, is the autopen pardon even valid? And second, given Fauci’s silence this week in his appearance before the U.S. Senate, what is the normally loquacious egomaniac even worried about? He’s been pardoned. That makes him safe, right? Why not talk?
EMBARASSING
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) July 29, 2026
Fauci can't answer what day of the week or what color tie he's wearing without invoking the 5th Amendment.@HawleyMO "You don’t have any rights under the Fifth Amendment because you have been pardoned as you very well know.. this is about contempt!" pic.twitter.com/5XS1e0uv2m
Earlier in July, my colleague Matt Margolis answered my second question. “Independent journalist John Solomon argues that Fauci could still face prosecution, spelling it out in an interview with Bill O'Reilly,” Matt wrote.
‘We know that in the end days of Joe Biden, Anthony Fauci got a pardon,’ Solomon began. ‘He can't be prosecuted for anything before January 20, 2025. But if Rand Paul puts him on the stand next week, as he's going to compel him to do, and Anthony Fauci does not tell the truth this time in the body of evidence that's there, he could be instantly prosecuted by the Trump Justice Department. If he does tell the truth, he's going to have to admit he lied to us previously.’
So Fauci had three options, and none were great. As Matt wrote, “Basically, Fauci, under oath again, has a choice: lie about what he did under oath and face prosecution, or admit he lied under oath before. Since Biden's pardon only covered what Fauci did before Biden officially left office, if he commits perjury, there’s nothing that can protect him. It left him completely exposed to everything that comes after.”
The third option is what Fauci actually did this week, which was to opt not to answer the questions senators posed to him by claiming protection under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution. But as Sen. John Hawley (R-Mo.) pointed out, once you accept a presidential pardon, you forfeit your Fifth Amendment rights. We’ll see where that goes.
FAUCI PARDON: NOT BULLETPROOF
— Catherine Herridge (@C__Herridge) July 29, 2026
On the Pardon: Before the hearing @SenRandPaul a former senior Justice Department prosecutor told me there are three, viable legal strategies to challenge the preemptive Biden pardon.
But there is no easy path.
One strategy calls for…
The new ground here, however, is the matter of the validity of the autopen as it relates to a presidential pardon. While it appears the Biden administration pardoned more than a few ethically sketchy people with that autopen, if you had to pick one of those pardons to put the validity of the autopen pardon to the legal test, Fauci presents the best of all worlds.
During the COVID-19 pandemic and since, Fauci was no stranger to Capitol Hill or just about any camera he could find. The man was everywhere you looked. His defiant battles with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) were trademark Fauci. In the course of his public appearances, former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard alleged that Fauci may have lied under oath more than once, and she claimed to have passed along the documents to prove it.
The bottom line is that Fauci himself may have given the Trump administration and the Department of Justice (DOJ) all it needs to hold him to account for his activities before, during, and after the pandemic. What Fauci did not provide to the Trump administration, the Biden administration may have through its liberal use of the autopen for those infamous pardons.
The DOJ can literally put the autopen on trial using the Fauci situation to challenge it. In the process, it could expose how the autopen was used, who actually signed off on those pardons, and, through the courts, determine if Fauci and the others were legitimately pardoned.
I'll leave it to the lawyers to argue over the best way to do any of this, but investigative reporter Catherine Herridge provided a good overview in a post on X on three possible ways to do it:
One strategy calls for charging Fauci with a crime, with the expectation he would file a motion with the court to dismiss based on the pardon. This could open the door to challenging the sweeping pardon’s viability and years of litigation. Another strategy involves Congress. Because Fauci has theoretically been preemptively pardoned against past and future criminal charges related to his NIH work, it can be argued that Fauci has no plausible claim to the 5th Amendment, the right against self-incrimination. If Fauci takes the Fifth at Senator Paul’s hearing (which he has) the committee could seek to compel Fauci's testimony. A finding of contempt could follow. Finally, one of Fauci’s closest associates has been criminally charged. With pressure and the right incentives he might be flipped and become a cooperating witness.
One of the most dangerous things about a criminal trial isn’t just the punishment that’s meted out at the end, but rather, all of the information that comes to light through discovery, testimony, and evidence that’s shared in the courtroom.
No amount of media spin can prevent the public from learning what happens in that courtroom. In a sense, while a criminal conviction of Fauci can hurt Fauci, the real threat to the left’s house of cards is what would become known to the world through a trial.
Because President Donald Trump sees his second term as an opportunity to more permanently right so many wrongs, in my opinion, if it would ever come to it, I can’t see Trump’s DOJ accepting a plea bargain from Fauci. They’d want a trial. They’d want to put Fauci on trial. They’d want to put the Biden administration on trial by putting the autopen on trial. And if they could get that domino to fall, there’s no telling how many other Democrat insiders would find the urgent need to lawyer up.
If you need a list to start with, just look at who Biden pardoned.
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