Dr. Anthony Fauci is scheduled to sit for a transcribed interview later this month with the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, setting up another direct confrontation with his longtime critic, Committee Chairman Rand Paul (R-KY).
The upcoming interview was revealed in a June 9, 2026, letter written by the committee’s top Democrat, Ranking Member Gary Peters (D-MI), to Paul. In the letter, Peters disclosed that the committee’s Republican majority is planning to conduct the interview privately, without allowing Democratic staff or members to attend or question the witness.
According to Peters, Democratic staff only found out about the interview after learning of the scheduling process independently. When they asked to take part, the majority staff informed them and Fauci’s legal counsel that minority staff would be completely excluded from the proceeding.
In his letter, Peters objected to the arrangement, calling the exclusion of the minority party from a transcribed interview “completely unprecedented” in the committee’s history.
Peters also accused Paul of steering the panel away from a joint, bipartisan investigation into risky life science research and the origins of COVID-19, which the two senators had originally launched together. Instead, Peters argued that Paul’s recent investigative efforts have been directed at Fauci in a way that “appears to be pursuing an outcome you have prejudged.”
The letter cited several past statements made by Paul on social media and in news reports as evidence of bias, including a December 2023 social media post where Paul stated his “one and only wish for Dr. Fauci this Christmas is that he can send this Christmas song [Christmas in Prison] to someone he loves very soon.” Another post from January 2024 stated that “Anthony Fauci lied to Congress and the bottom line is he needs to be in prison.”
Beyond the upcoming Fauci interview, Peters detailed other instances where he alleges committee and Senate rules regarding equal access to information were violated. He noted that during a classified deposition in March 2026, majority staff shifted the schedule forward without notice and blocked Democratic staff from attending, eventually dictating that only a single, specific minority staff member could enter.
Furthermore, Peters stated that Republican members were given exclusive access to a preliminary classified transcript of that deposition prior to a public hearing on May 13, 2026, while Democratic members were denied access. He also asserted that his staff has had to learn from outside parties about tens of thousands of pages of records obtained through Chairman Paul’s subpoenas, which have not been shared with the minority side.
Peters linked these issues to a January 2025 change in committee rules that granted the chairman unilateral subpoena power. He recalled that Paul had publicly promised at the time that all records would be uploaded to a shared server for easy access by both parties, quoting Paul’s reassurance from the January 16, 2025, business meeting:
“Any information that is gathered from the executive branch, we are going to have a way that you can log on to it. We are going to put it on a server. You don’t have to come and ask me to print it out or anything. . . It’s government records, everybody, Republican, Democrat . . . you or your staff and your office is going to be able to log onto this, where it is going to be easier access.”
Peters stated that these assurances have proven untrue and warned that the current unilateral approach risks causing permanent damage to the credibility of congressional oversight.
To correct the course, Peters asked Paul for a formal commitment to provide the minority party with timely notice and opportunities to participate in all depositions and transcribed interviews, regular access to incoming document productions, and copies of all records and interview transcripts collected by the committee to date.
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