Louisiana AG Says State Could Pursue Fauci Over Deposition Statements and Diary Revelations

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said the state is exploring a criminal or civil case against Dr. Anthony Fauci stemming from his 2022 deposition.

During the deposition in a civil suit brought by Louisiana and Missouri against the Biden administration, Fauci said 174 times that he didn’t recall or didn’t remember certain information. However, new revelations that he kept a previously undisclosed diary of COVID-19 pandemic actions could provide the states with avenues to explore obstruction or perjury charges, or a civil contempt case that he potentially withheld information when deposed.

“He seemed not to recall many things about his decisions during the pandemic,” Murrill, a Republican, told the Daily Signal of Fauci’s testimony.

Murrill said the state’s 2022 subpoena of Fauci was broad, so it is notable that the materials he provided did not include his diary.

“It’s new information to us that he had a diary,” Murrill said. “We will go back and review that case and what we asked him to produce. I am certain he did not produce a diary. As a public official, he kept information on a public computer. He had a duty to report that to us.”

So far, Louisiana, Florida, and Alabama have announced plans to investigate Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, on state charges after his July 29 Senate testimony, where he invoked the Fifth Amendment 111 times.

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President Joe Biden’s sweeping pardon of Fauci in January 2025 wouldn’t apply to any charges at the state level. It only shields Fauci from federal prosecution for actions taken before the time of the pardon, noted Cully Stimson, senior legal fellow with The Heritage Foundation. He added that Fauci still has exposure for actions taken afterward.

“For example, if you perjure yourself in Congress, if you engage in contempt of Congress, continue to derive profits from things you did during the pardon period, and you receive those benefits later, that could potentially invoke federal law,” Stimson told the Daily Signal.

However, states would still face a challenge of jurisdiction. “For anybody to be prosecuted at the state level, they have to have committed a crime in the state and it has to be a crime under state law at the time it was allegedly committed,” Stimson said.

“Just because Fauci’s recommendations or actions affected people in all 50 states and around the world doesn’t mean that necessarily there’s any criminal liability at the state level that would attach.” He added that states have expansive police power during a state of emergency that can surpass the powers of the federal government.

Stimson said, “I would still not want to be Anthony Fauci, whose legal troubles are just beginning.”

Fauci, who retired at the end of 2022 after 38 years directing his agency, repeatedly has said the United States never funded gain-of-function research projects at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology, suspected to be the source of COVID-19. He also has insisted that he never misled Congress on issues related to the origin of the virus.

The Daily Signal reached out to Georgetown University, where Fauci is a distinguished professor in the School of Medicine, and also to Leading Authorities, a speaker’s bureau that books his public speaking engagements, to attempt to get a comment for this story. Neither party responded.

Louisiana and Missouri challenged the Biden administration’s alleged coordination with social media companies to suppress or remove content on their platforms during the pandemic, including posts concerning COVID-19 and the Hunter Biden laptop story. As part of that lawsuit, they subpoenaed Fauci for his 2022 deposition.

In 2024, the Supreme Court ultimately rejected the case on standing. The litigation was settled in March 2026 under a consent decree negotiated with the Trump administration, under which federal offices are prohibited for 10 years from threatening social media companies with legal, regulatory, or economic punishment to induce them to remove or suppress protected speech.

Despite the settlement with the government, Murrill believes there is still an avenue for state action against Fauci.

“The civil suit was settled. We had a consent decree with the federal government,” Murrill said. “There might still be an avenue for contempt in the civil suit. We might also look at perjury and potential obstruction. But the burden of proof is much lower in a civil matter.”

With regard to a criminal probe, Murrill said, “We will also look at jurisdiction and the statute of limitations.”

However, she added, “He wasn’t operating in Louisiana; he was operating in Washington, D.C., and his actions were part of his capacity in the federal government.”

“It might fall out of our jurisdiction or scope of power.”

In February 2025, attorneys general from 17 states signed a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., asking for assistance with information that might help states bring charges against Fauci and other “malign actors.”

The AGs referenced the findings of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic that determined in its final report that Fauci and other high-ranking officials may have engaged in misleading the public about the pandemic’s origins; misrepresenting National Institutes of Health funding of gain-of-function research in Wuhan; and suppressing scientific debate on pandemic policies and vaccine risks.

“To ensure that former President Biden’s shameful pardon does not frustrate accountability, we urge Congress to consider using all available tools at its disposal. Certainly, one potential tool at our disposal is the referral of any pertinent findings to state officials,” the attorneys general’s letter to Johnson and Thune says. “As you are aware, a pardon by former President Biden does not extend to preclude state-level investigations or legal proceedings. As state attorneys general, we possess the authority to address violations of state law or breaches of public trust.”

Spokesmen for attorneys general offices in Florida and Alabama did not respond to inquiries for this story.