Anthony Fauci is still getting a taxpayer-funded security detail and SUV, despite retiring from his $480,000-a-year government job 18 months ago.
Now a top Republican has accused the former White House COVID advisor of trying to get ‘sympathy’ by claiming extremists want to kill him and he is the target of death threats.
During the publicity tour to promote his new book, 83-year-old Fauci recently said he is scared ‘deep down, that there’s a possibility that somebody’s gonna kill me.’
But that is just a strategy to ‘develop empathy and sympathy’ and paint ‘Republicans as creating this danger,’ Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview.
Dr. Fauci, who has an estimated $11 million net worth, is constantly surrounded by US Marshals whether he is at home or going to TV studios to film interviews.
Over the weekend he was spotted arriving back at his home in the Washington D.C. area in workout gear after getting out of a black government SUV.
Dr. Anthony Fauci is still getting a taxpayer-funded security detail and SUV, despite retiring from his $400,000-a-year government job 18 months ago. He is pictured outside his home over the weekend
At least six US Marshals were seen with a fleet of vehicles parked in his neighborhood, ready for whenever he leaves his property – which according to real estate websites is worth around $2.2million.
Their Marshals pin badges are clearly visible, and they are on call all times of day for when he needs to travel.
‘The only other person probably getting his level of security would be the president, vice president, maybe cabinet members, and a few members in leadership in the House and Senate,’ Paul told DailyMail.com.
‘And he’s getting this while not in government anymore,’ Paul continued.
‘Giving Dr. Fauci taxpayer-funded US Marshal protection after he is no longer an employee of the federal government sets an expensive precedent for future former employees,’ David Williams, President of Taxpayers Protection Alliance told DailyMail.com.
‘Dr. Fauci was the highest paid employee who now has a very generous pension estimated at more than $400,000, Now he continues to cost taxpayers money. With an estimated net worth of more than $11 million.
Over the weekend he was spotted arriving back at his home in workout gear after getting out of a black government SUV, with his US Marshal detail in tow
Fauci, who has an estimated $11 million net worth, is constantly surrounded by US Marshals whether he is at home or going to TV studios to film interviews
Fauci’s detail on the street outside his home. Republican Senator Rand Paul said only cabinet members would receive the same level of protection
US Marshals in Fauci’s security detail stand around a fleet of SUVs in his neighborhood
Fauci’s wife Christine step out of the government SUV outside their home
‘Dr. Fauci can afford his own security detail. Taxpayers paid for his mishandling of COVID-19, they shouldn’t continue to pay.’
Paul, who himself has received many death threats despite having nowhere near the same detail, has been incredulous over public praise for the doctor.
He is pushing for him to be held accountable for suggesting policies like social distancing and masking, which he later admitted were not rooted in science.
‘He wants to develop empathy and sympathy. He wants to paint Republicans as creating this danger. I’ve had 34 death threats in a week before. I have had death threats as soon as this last week,’ Paul said.
‘So we get them all the time, and nobody picks me up in a limo and takes me to where I want to go every day.’
On Thursday, Fauci was pictured with his security detail arriving to and exiting from the ABC studios in New York for an appearance on ‘The View’ to talk about his book.
The former White House chief medical advisor received fawning praise from the hosts, with Whoopi Goldberg bestowing the title of ‘classiest’ guy in Washington, D.C. onto Fauci.
Previously Paul has raised questions over why a non-government official gets these perks, and asked the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to investigate.
That probe later revealed that US Marshals took over Fauci’s protective service in January 2023, and the recent images of the doctor with his detail indicate taxpayers are still on the hook for protecting the pandemic patriarch.
Despite this enhanced protection, earlier this month, Fauci teared up before a House panel grilling him on his role in the pandemic while talking about threats made to his and his family’s lives.
Fauci’s wife Christine returns to their home with boxes
Fauci arrives at ABC studios in New York last Thursday for an appearance on The View. He chauffeured to and from the appearance by his private security detail
Fauci exits ABC studios while being escorted by his US Marshal security detail after appearing Thursday on ‘The View.’ The Marshal can be clearly identified by his lapel pin
The same Marshal is seen outside Fauci’s home over the weekend
‘Myself, my three daughters, they have had credible death threats, leading to the arrests of different individuals,’ he said. ‘Credible death threats meaning someone who clearly was on their way to killing.’
‘It’s very troublesome to me,’ he continued. ‘It is even more troublesome because they involve my wife.’
On ‘The View’ he further discussed his book and talk about the personal implications the pandemic had for him.
‘If trying to save people’s lives is a crime, then I’m guilty,’ he said.
Paul has been outspoken in accusing Fauci of obfuscating the origins of the virus.
The Republican has twice sent referrals to the Justice Department for Fauci’s prosecution, telling DailyMail.com ‘he committed a felony by lying to Congress saying he didn’t fund gain and function research. He’s still saying that.
‘It is annoying that he’s still out there crowing how great he is, when really his philosophic opinion that gain-of-function research is worth the risk is something that I think history should remember, and I’m going to do every bit of making sure that history remembers that he was philosophically in favor of the research that I believe allowed millions of people to die from this lab leak.’
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said Fauci’s recounting of death threats is an attempt to gain sympathy
Videos on social media show Fauci gets driven around in a black SUV
And its not just Paul who is upset about Fauci’s security detail, last year a group of House Republicans introduced legislation to rescind the federal money being spent on the doctor’s security.
‘A country that is nearly $35 trillion in debt should not be funding the security detail of one of our highest-paid bureaucrats who has retired and has a net worth of $11 million,’ said Rep. Barry Moore, R-Ala., who co-sponsored the bill.
‘Dr. Fauci spent years lying to the American people about the origins of COVID-19 and what practices would keep us safe, and now he has left taxpayers to foot the bill for his security? That’s unacceptable.’
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton told DailyMail.com that Fauci having a detail is ‘extraordinary’ as he is not employed by the government and pointed out how Independent presidential candidate Robert Kennedy has been denied federal protection.
‘It’s extraordinary for the government to be providing security for former government official such as Dr Fauci,’ Fitton said. ‘He’s not a former FBI director, he’s not a former attorney general.’
‘And, you know, the costs are increased, obviously, because he’s on a book tour.’
Judicial Watch is filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to discover just how much Fauci’s protective detail is costing taxpayers, Fitton said after speaking with DailyMail.com for this report.
Taxpayers Protection Alliance President David Williams told DailyMail.com: ‘Giving Dr. Fauci taxpayer-funded US Marshall protection after he is no longer an employee of the federal government sets an expensive precedent for future former employees.’
‘Dr. Fauci was the highest paid employee who now has a very generous pension estimated at more than $400,000, now he continues to cost taxpayers money. With an estimated net worth of more than $11 million, Dr. Fauci can afford his own security detail.’
‘Taxpayers paid for his mishandling of COVID-19, they shouldn’t continue to pay.’
Earlier this week, Paul grilled several eminent doctors during a Senate hearing on the origins of COVID and definition of gain-of-function research.
The hearing became heated as lawmakers and witnesses sparred over the good that could come from the research that enhances viruses to make them more effective.
It also became tense in the room as Dr. Robert Garry – who wrote a widely circulated opinion piece in March 2020 touted by Fauci about how COVID did not come from a lab leak – withstood shots to his essay’s credibility and the damage it may have caused.
COVID ‘is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus’ Garry wrote in the paper, which suggested a zoonotic origin for the virus.
However, emails obtained by the Senate show that privately, a month before publishing the now-infamous paper, the doctor had no idea how COVID could have come from animals.
‘I really can’t think of a plausible natural scenario when you get from the bat virus, or one very similar to it, COVID–19,’ Garry wrote in a February 2020 email.
Paul claims that Fauci directly commissioned the paper from Garry and his colleagues, and that he covered up the lab leak hypothesis.
He still wants to get government documents from Health and Human Services (HHS) and the National Institute of Health (NIH) that may provide further private correspondence as to what Fauci and his doctors discussed behind closed doors.
And Paul said if Republicans gain control of the Senate in November and he gets committee power, his first action will be to subpoena those files.
‘The most important information is the NIH deliberation over what is, what is not gain-of-function,’ he told DailyMail.com. ‘They won’t give us the information.’
Fauci admitted earlier this month that the six foot social distancing and masking guidance mandated during the pandemic was not entirely rooted in science
Fauci signs autographs outside of the ABC studios in New York on Thursday, with a member of his US Marshals detail behind him
Those documents will truly reveal whether Fauci lied to Congress about whether he was overseeing the dangerous research method, which he previously denied doing before the Senate, Paul said.
Still, the reputation damage to US public health officials is done, he added.
‘We have public health officials that appear to be more salesmen for Big Pharma, than they do objective scientists, and that still is a problem,’ Paul told DailyMail.com.
‘It’s led to a great deal of distrust, much more distrust over what the government tells us, than ever before,’ he said.
DailyMail.com has reached out to the US Marshals for response.
