FBI Director Kash Patel said in an interview this week that his agency made a “breakthrough” as it continues to investigate former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, a key player in the U.S.’s early response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the same time, Patel cautioned Fauci’s critics from expecting too much.
“We just had a great breakthrough this week on Fauci,” Patel told podcaster Joe Rogan in an episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience” released Friday, explaining the FBI had recovered phones used by Fauci early in the pandemic.
“They had always been looking for phones and devices he used while he was back in Trump one [the first Trump administration] during COVID, and nobody had found it until two days ago.”
“Everybody listening to us shouldn’t jump to the conclusion [that] everything’s in there,” he added. “Maybe it’s deleted, maybe it’s not, but at least we found it, and at least now we can tell people that we have been looking because it is of public importance.”
President Trump and his allies have long accused Fauci of misleading the government on its handling of the pandemic and hiding the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Former President Biden granted Fauci a preemptive presidential pardon before Trump took office in January to shield the retired doctor from prosecution. Trump blasted the move at the time.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) a year earlier called for Fauci to be jailed over the origins of the COVID-19 virus. Paul and others claim Fauci played a role in the outbreak through lab research in China and accused Fauci of causing “between 10 [million] and 20 million” deaths from the pandemic.
Fauci last year defended himself before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, arguing that he always followed the best science available and never suppressed evidence of a potential “lab leak.”
He told lawmakers at the time that another million people would have died without government interventions, though he conceded, “how long you kept them going is debatable.”
Biden’s pardon covers any offenses from Jan. 1, 2014, to the end of Biden’s term related to Fauci’s service as NIAID director, a member of the White House’s COVID-19 task force or as chief medical adviser to the president.
“We think that there was definite foul play, but my opinion is irrelevant,” Patel said. “It only matters what I can show the American people and prove.”
“That’s what we’re working on [but] that’s why I don’t run out there and say ‘Look, we’re gonna get this guy, we’re 100 percent gonna get him,'” Patel added.
