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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said he respects the pardon Joe Biden issued to Dr. Anthony Fauci in the final hours of his predecessor's presidency ‒ a reprieve that has getting new attention as Fauci faces growing legal threats from Republicans in Congress."He was pardoned by Biden, and I respect that," Trump told reporters on July 29. "I know how powerful it is. It's a very powerful ‒ they say it's literally the most powerful thing a president has."Fauci was among a group of Trump adversaries and Biden family members who received highly unusual preemptive pardons from Biden on Jan. 19, 2025, Biden's final full day in office, in anticipation of potential prosecution from the incoming Trump administration. Fauci received blanket immunity for any potential criminal offense made between 2014 and 2025.Senate Republicans, led by Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, have alleged Fauci's newly publicized diary entries prove he previously lied under oath to Congress ‒ a federal crime ‒ when he gave testimony on the COVID-19 pandemic as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The pardon protects him even if he did commit an offense, however.How Republicans hope to cite pardon to hold Fauci in contemptFauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to answer questions during a July 29 hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, a move that exposed himself to hours of scathing criticism and allegations from Republican senators without mounting a defense. Fauci said he chose to not to talk because Paul, the committee's chairman, has previously made threats to have him prosecuted.Citing Biden's pardon, however, Paul said the committee plans to vote on holding Fauci in contempt for refusing to answer questions at the hearing.Paul said the committee's questions for Fauci were only limited to the period covered by Biden's pardon, between 2014 and 2025, arguing the Fifth Amendment ‒ which protects against self-incrimination ‒ doesn't come into play when the subject is under blanket immunity.Yet Paul's grounds for holding Fauci in contempt ignore that any statements Fauci made July 29 could have exposed him to accusations of perjury or other offenses outside the time period of Biden's pardon. In addition, Biden's pardon did not protect Fauci from potential state or local charges.Trump has taken issue with other Biden pardonsTrump has frequently invoked the president's clemency power. So far in his second term, he's granted clemency, either pardons or commuting sentences, to more than 1,700 individuals, including 1,500 people convicted of crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.Trump defended the Fauci pardon's validity even as he's alleged many of the pardons Biden issued during his presidency are illegitimate because the former president used an autopen to sign the documents. Among those signed with an autopen, according to an October 2025 report from the Republican-led House Oversight Committee, were Biden's Jan. 19, 2025 pardons including the reprieve for Fauci."He probably didn't sign this one. I can't tell you what the law is," Trump said when asked about the pardon hours after Fauci appeared before the Senate committee. "Maybe there's something on the autopen. Other than that, the power of pardon is very powerful.""He wasn't a big factor for me. He was a very big factor for Biden," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "COVID was a disaster but Fauci did not help."Trump said he watched the entire Senate hearing as Fauci ‒ who served as the original face of the Trump administration's response to the COVID-19 pandemic ‒ declined to answer every question by repeatedly invoking his Fifth Amendment right.Trump sought to distance himself from Fauci when asked why he believed Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right, yet he refrained from piling on the beleaguered infectious disease expert."Well, look, I've never been a big fan of Fauci," Trump said. "Why he did that was very simple: His lawyer told him to. I don't know if he would have been better off not doing it. There were a lot of questions that I guess he could have answered, and some maybe he didn't feel comfortable answering."Reach Joey Garrison on @joeygarrison.
