Louisiana and West Virginia Join Florida's Multistate Subpoena of Fauci Over COVID Financial Disclosures

Since Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier issued a subpoena to Dr. Anthony Fauci this past Wednesday, two more states have signed on to the effort: Louisiana and West Virginia.

The subpoena, detailed in a news release from Uthmeier's office, seeks records tied to awards, professional opportunities, financial incentives, grants, and the COVID-19 guidance Fauci helped shape while heading the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Uthmeier's office says it wants to know whether any of that guidance harmed Florida businesses or consumers, and whether Fauci personally profited along the way.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill and West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey both issued statements backing the Florida effort, according to matzav. "What we know already is Fauci lied. We just don't know yet how much," Murrill said, adding that he "lied about something as basic as keeping a diary." McCuskey said the American people "deserve to know if they or their elected leaders were misled or manipulated."

Uthmeier told Newsmax he spent a day on Capitol Hill this past week "trying to gather evidence and get closer to the truth of what Dr. Fauci knew and when he knew it." He also claimed recently disclosed materials suggest Fauci privately questioned the safety of mRNA vaccines, including for kids, even as he publicly pushed them. That claim comes from Uthmeier, not from an independent document review described in either source, and it has not been independently verified in these reports.

What Uthmeier Is Actually Investigating

Appearing on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures," Uthmeier laid out the legal menu his office is working through: fraud, deceptive trade practices, public nuisance, and potentially criminal exposure. He was careful to hedge on the criminal question when pressed directly.

"I can't say that right now," Uthmeier said when asked if he believes Fauci committed a crime. He said his office "follows rules of procedure and evidence," but added that if Fauci was "making money on the side while perpetrating this fraud, there could very well be criminal liability."

Uthmeier is not alleging a specific crime has been committed. He's saying his office is looking, using "every tool under Florida law," and that self-dealing, if it's found, would open the door to criminal charges. No charges have been filed. No indictment exists. This is a subpoena-stage document investigation, not a prosecution.

The Pardon Problem

Former President Joe Biden granted Fauci a full and unconditional pardon covering conduct between January 1, 2014, and January 19, 2025.

But presidential pardons only reach federal crimes. They carry zero weight against state-level charges, which is exactly the gap Florida, Louisiana and West Virginia are trying to use. Legal experts cited in Fox News coverage have said the pardon may not provide the "complete cover" some assumed when Biden issued it.

The Fifth Amendment Backdrop

All of this follows Fauci's July 29 appearance before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, where he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 100 times rather than answer lawmakers' questions. He was separately held in contempt by Senate investigators after his cellphone was obtained as part of that inquiry.

Invoking the Fifth is not evidence of guilt. It's a constitutional protection available to any witness, and plenty of innocent people use it to avoid legal exposure in ambiguous situations. But for state attorneys general building a civil or criminal case, a witness who won't answer basic questions about timeline and knowledge makes document subpoenas more valuable, not less.

What's Actually Unresolved

Nobody in either source has produced documentary proof that Fauci profited personally from pandemic policy, beyond Uthmeier's assertion that materials exist suggesting private doubts about vaccine safety. That assertion needs to be tested against the actual subpoenaed records once Florida's office reviews them.

Public health officials routinely express calibrated uncertainty in private that differs from public messaging built for a mass audience during an active pandemic. Internal hedging is not automatically evidence of "duping" the public, as Uthmeier alleges. Whether Fauci's private communications cross the line from ordinary scientific caution into deliberate deception is precisely what the subpoenaed records would need to show, and that determination hasn't been made.

The next concrete marker is whether Fauci's team complies with, challenges, or negotiates the scope of Florida's subpoena, and whether additional states join Louisiana and West Virginia in backing Uthmeier's effort.