Newly released diary pages belonging to Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the government’s most influential chief health officials for nearly four decades, show that he disparaged Donald Trump, praised Chinese health officials, and lost a set of confidential records in a ransomware attack. The files were the latest batch of entries in Fauci’s so-called diary to be released publicly by Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., the Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. Paul is currently investigating whether Fauci or his aides destroyed government documents to avoid disclosure under public information requests. Government emails are generally required to be preserved under the Federal Records Act.
Although that Act says that “willfully and unlawfully concealing, removing, mutilating, obliterating, destroying, or carrying away any public record or document is punishable by up to 3 years in prison, a fine of up to $2,000, or both,” when Fauci was pardoned by President Joe Biden, Paul told Just the News in June that “I think we should challenge the pardon, because it’s an extraordinary pardon. It’s a pardon not for a specific crime, and it’s a pardon over a 10-year period. It’s the same that he got, the same thing Hunter Biden got.”
Fauci kept meticulous and wide-ranging records
Fauci’s diary has landed the ex-health official in hot water. During his time as the leading government health official during the COVID-19 pandemic, Fauci kept a meticulous record of his meetings, phone calls, and other day-to-day activities. Last month, the committee released memos showing he privately believed that the death rate of COVID-19 was much lower than he told Congress just one month later, Just the News previously reported.
Paul summoned Fauci to testify before his committee in August, but the retired top doc refused to answer most questions by invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Paul’s panel referred Fauci to the Justice Department for possible prosecution for contempt of Congress. Fauci was granted a pardon by President Biden which covered all potential federal offenses committed between 2014 and 2024. That led some constitutional experts to insist that Fauci does not have the right to invoke the Fifth Amendment.
Longstanding dislike, distrust of Trump
The new records show the health official repeatedly criticized Donald Trump during the 2016 election and eventually called for him to be impeached over a government shutdown in early 2019, Just the News reported.
“He is acting more and more bizarre. Should be impeached, but Dems are rightfully concerned that this will galvanize his base,” Fauci wrote in a diary entry memorializing Jan. 1–7, 2019, in the midst of a government shutdown.
The records also show that Dr. Fauci’s dim view of the president developed long before the president took office. The entries show that Fauci began contemplating what a Trump presidency would mean to his agency’s funding during the 2016 campaign and also commented on his debate performance.
“Trump made a fool of himself in the debate on Monday 26 Sept,” Fauci wrote.
You can read the new diary pages below:
After a video recording of Trump was published in October in which the New York mogul told a colleague about his efforts to seduce a woman, Fauci was appalled and argued it should be disqualifying for him to be president. “Trump caught in [sic] Tape denigrating women,” Fauci wrote. “Anyone else would be disqualified by this; however, his people still support him.”
“Trump acting very erratically. Continues to implode,” he wrote a few days later.
After Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in the election, Fauci continued to write in his diary about how he viewed the incoming president. In December, Fauci said “Trump continues to spout outrageous things on one day and seem reasonable on the next day.” He then lamented that his planned nominations for cabinet positions were “scary.”
Darts for GOP, laurels for Chinese government health officials
“Congressman Price (R-GA) for HHS. He is against ACA, Medicare/Medicaid, abortion, anti-science and he is an orthopedic surgeon. Will give him a chance, but let us see,” he added. Price served as President Trump’s first Secretary of Health and Human Services in his first administration.
The records show that Fauci also praised a prominent Chinese official, the then-Director General of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Gao Fu served as the head of that Chinese agency during the COVID-19 pandemic before leaving in 2022.
“Big Chinese visitor day – Hosted Gao Fu (George) here at NIH. He is the Director General of the China CDC. Very smart and nice guy,” Fauci wrote in September 2017. “Then went down to CSIS to meet with Chinese delegation – Liu Fandong – Vice Premier of China; Li Bin – Minister of National Health and Family Planning; Dr Cao – Director of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (CAMS). Present was Sec. Price and a group of Chinese and USA interested parties. I gave brief description of activities of NIH in collaboration with Chinese.”
Fell victim to ransomware attack, lost confidential files
In another notable entry, Fauci detailed a cyber incident that compromised his personal files, including confidential files surrounding prior anthrax attacks. These files also included letters written by Fauci during his time in government.
“I was attacked by ‘Ransonware’ and my entire unprotected folder (CDrive – Word Files) was encrypted. Luckily, I had a backup of most of my historical daily notes and my autobiography was on a separate, nonaccessible folder. However, I lost all of the letters that I have ever written as well as other important documents in the Word Files folder,” Fauci wrote on July 22, 2016.
“I had originally created this [folder] for the confidential files that I made right after the anthrax attacks since I did not want them accessible to anyone. However, I soon began putting other important documents into that folder – Bad idea!!!” he added.
