Fauci Probe Deepens Over Secret COVID Diary

The House Oversight Committee is intensifying its investigation into Dr. Anthony Fauci’s pandemic-era records, placing the blame for withheld materials on former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, now a California gubernatorial candidate.

Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., sent a letter Monday noting that a November 2023 request for records containing terms such as “COVID-19,” “gain-of-function,” and “Wuhan” should have produced Fauci’s diary. “These terms, among others outlined in the document request, appear throughout Dr. Fauci’s diary. Despite the existence of this clearly relevant and responsive information, you failed to include any portion of Dr. Fauci’s diary in your response, let alone even acknowledge its existence,” Comer wrote. “The Committee is concerned that you either intentionally withheld this information, or that you failed to conduct an adequate search of the Department’s systems as requested in the November 2, 2023, letter.”

Current HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. later turned the diary and cellphone over to Sens. Rand Paul and Ron Johnson. More than 1,000 pages revealed Fauci’s private thoughts, including entries about his growing celebrity and influence. One 2020 excerpt shows him saying he “convinced” then-New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio “based on what I was saying publicly and my conversation tonight to close the NYC schools.”

Fauci had previously told a House subcommittee that the CDC, not he, was responsible for school guidelines such as six-foot distancing. During a late July Senate hearing he invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times. Comer has demanded answers from Becerra by September 2 on whether he knew of the diary, why it was not produced, and whether any Biden officials pressured him to withhold materials.

Becerra’s communications strategist dismissed the inquiry as “ginned up political theater.” The development comes as a former Fauci advisor pleaded guilty to conspiracy to conceal COVID-related records, keeping the long-running accountability effort against pandemic decision-makers firmly in the spotlight.