Dr. Fauci Accused of Hatch Act Violations

Greg Nash/Pool via AP

A complaint against Dr. Anthony Fauci alleges that the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) violated the Hatch Act—which prohibits government employees from “us[ing] his official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election.”

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The complaint, filed on Wednesday, was made by Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT), a non-profit organization “dedicated to promoting compliance in government and restoring the public’s trust in government officials.”

“PPT respectfully requests that you investigate whether National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director Anthony Fauci violated the Hatch Act in the course of conducting an interview with The Washington Post just days before the General Presidential Election in November 2020,” the group asked.

“Dr. Anthony Fauci’s evaluation of the two candidates running for President during his interview with The Washington Post on October 30, 2020 demonstrated a clear intent to use his influence as one of the nation’s leading COVID-19 experts to affect the outcome of the coming national election,” the complaint reads.

“When the totality of circumstances is taken into account, it becomes clear that Dr. Fauci exceeded the mere exchange of opinions and in fact, participated in impermissible political activity,” the complaint continues. “Despite personally categorizing similar statements as ‘political’ just days before, Dr. Fauci nevertheless offered his evaluation of the Biden campaign’s approach to the COVID-19 pandemic relative to the approach taken by President Trump and connected differences in the nation’s likely health outcomes to the different approaches.”

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PPT noted that “as a member of the career Senior Executive Service, Dr. Fauci … is barred from campaigning for or against a candidate in a partisan election, making campaign speeches or distributing campaign material even while off-duty” under the Hatch Act.

Dr. Fauci has lost a ton of credibility in recent weeks, following the release of thousands of Dr. Fauci’s emails due to a Freedom of Information Act request. The emails contained several bombshells, including Fauci, in his own words, saying that face masks don’t protect people from COVID-19. Fauci originally advocated against mask-wearing before he became a strong advocate for it and eventually recommended double-masking. Another email from a scientist suggests that the virus may have had a man-made component (that researcher eventually walked back that claim). Fauci repeatedly publicly refuted the man-made virus theory for a year before flip-flopping, possibly to protect his own connections to funding “gain-of-function” research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

RELATED: The Five Biggest Bombshells (So Far) From Fauci’s Emails

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Human Events Senior Editor Jack Posobiec claimed earlier this month that White House officials are “actively discussing an exit strategy” for Dr. Fauci, though this report hasn’t been confirmed. In late May, former Trump administration official Peter Navarro said he believed Fauci would be gone within 90 days.

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