FIRST ON FOX: A top Florida official is slapping Anthony Fauci with a subpoena over alleged \u201cprofiting\u201d from federal guidance that hurt businesses, residents.
\nFlorida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced Wednesday he has issued an investigative subpoena against former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease Director Anthony Fauci.
\nThe subpoena is part of a state probe into Fauci\u2019s awards, incentives and guidance that impacted Florida\u2019s residents and their businesses during the coronavirus pandemic.
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The announcement comes after Uthmeier, along with Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., pledged to have Fauci investigated at the state level following his Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee hearing last week when he pleaded the Fifth 111 times and references were made to his blanket federal pardon from former President Joe Biden.
\n\u201cWe issued a formal subpoena to Dr. Fauci under Florida state law, seeking a breadth of documents ranging to what he knew when he knew it, his doubts about the safety and efficacy of vaccines that he\u2019s out there promoting, and we\u2019re really focused in on his self-dealing,\u201d Uthmeier announced on Fox News.
\n\u201cEvidence has come to light that he was trying to personally profit off of this. This is outside of his government duties, his official role: He\u2019s trying to pursue book deals, awards, get connected with high rollers that might help him come into millions and millions of dollars. This is wrong, and it could go towards a deceptive trade practice, fraud, public nuisance, you name it. I think there\u2019s many aspects of Florida law that now are implicated.\u201d
\nUthmeier said the activities he is being subpoenaed over were revealed largely through his diary \u2013 several hundred pages of writings made on a federal server that Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., released last week.
\nFAUCI\u2019S NEWLY RELEASED COVID DIARIES REVEAL BIZARRE FIXATION ON FAME AS PANDEMIC DEATHS MOUNTED<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know one award in particular, he made $900,000 on that,\u201d he said, appearing to refer to Fauci receiving approximately that amount from the Dan David Prize from Tel Aviv University.
\nUthmeier said that when a bureaucrat is issuing directives and mandates he is privately questioning while also deriving a profit from that work, it raises legal questions.
\n\u201cIt starts as a civil inquiry,\u201d Uthmeier said. \u201cBut we\u2019re going to tie in all aspects of Florida common law, things ranging from deceptive trade, fraud, public nuisance, nothing is off the table.\u201d
\nThe subpoena asks for awards Fauci applied to, considered or received from any organization, including those within the state of Florida, relating to the pandemic.
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It also asks for information on professional opportunities offered to or considered by Fauci, as well as interactions and communications with Florida businesses, media outlets and communities regarding COVID-19 vaccination sites, social distancing and mask orders, and school closures.
\nA pair of other states expressed encouragement at the news.
\nWest Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey alleged Fauci\u2019s refusal to answer Paul\u2019s questions is \u201cconcerning\u201d and that the American people deserve to know whether they were misled or \u201cmanipulated.\u201d
\n\u201cBoth my Office and I support Attorney General Uthmeier\u2019s efforts to uncover the truth,\u201d McCuskey said in a statement obtained by Fox News Digital.
\nLouisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill added that the public \u201cdeserves answers to about a million questions related to the pandemic, its origins, and the government\u2019s actions in response.\u201d
\nMurrill alleged Fauci had lied and said that \u201cwe just don\u2019t know how much\u201d so.
\n\u201cBut he lied about something as basic as keeping a diary. The truth will come out.\u201d
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Fox News Digital reached out to Schertler Law, counsel for Fauci, for comment.
\nFox News Digital\u2019s Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.<\/p>\n
This post appeared first on https:\/\/www.foxnews.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"