Photo courtesy of the White House, public domain

 

 

By Adam Andrzejewski

It’s not public what Dr. Fauci’s salary was last year or this year. (The latest published salary is from FY2020.)

It’s not public what stocks and bonds Dr. Fauci bought and sold in 2020 or 2021, as he influenced Covid policies. 

It’s not public what Fauci received – or didn’t receive – in royalties. (There are up to 1,000 current and former NIH scientists receiving royalties.) Each payment could be a potential conflict of interest.

Yes, all this information resides with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), but isn’t “public knowledge,” despite Dr. Fauci’s claims otherwise in his sworn U.S. Senate testimony yesterday. 

These facts are known because an organization I lead, OpenTheBooks.com, is suing NIH for production of those records. In fact, NIH admits it holds approximately 1,200 pages relating to Fauci’s financial information and conflict of interest disclosures. 

Transparency advocates say that NIH should post these documents online immediately.

At Forbes, last January, I published an OpenTheBooks’ investigation that Fauci was the most highly compensated federal employee and out-earned the President and four-star generals in the U.S. military. 

Many people questioned how Fauci’s pay could exceed 4.3 million federal employees.

So Freedom of Information Act requests were filed starting on January 25, 2021 with the National Institutes of Health. Here is a list of Fauci’s documents that NIH refused to produce:

• employment contract (with all amendments, changes, or modifications)
• job description
• confidentiality agreements
• conflict of interest disclosures
• financial disclosures
• royalty payments.

In May, NIH was threatened with litigation and 51 pages of somewhat-redacted information was released. Within that release, I published at Forbes the important “permanent pay adjustment” memo from 2004 that revealed for the first time that Fauci was paid to prevent the next pandemic.

Then, NIH went silent and wouldn’t correspond for months. So, last fall, NIH was sued in federal court on the OpenTheBooks’ FOIA by the public interest, non-profit Judicial Watch, Washington, D.C.

Even with the admission that NIH is holding 1,200 pages of Fauci disclosure information, the agency will only produce 300 pages per month and not even begin to produce documents until February 1st.

What else will the public discover about Dr. Fauci with an additional 1,200 pages of disclosure? 

For example, did Fauci’s early knowledge of the Covid-19 outbreak influence any of his financial trading? In the few pages NIH did release, auditors note a move by him to partially liquidate his account from early November 2019 to late December 2019. 

What did Fauci trade the first week of January 2020? Or in 2021?

Yesterday, in a heated exchange with U.S. Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS), Dr. Fauci testified under oath that his financial documents and conflict of interest disclosures are “public knowledge” and “all you have to do is ask.”

Here is a transcript of Dr. Fauci’s comments:

First, Fauci said, "My financial disclosure is public knowledge and has been so for the last 37 years or so the last 35 years."

Then, Fauci said, "All you have to do is ask for it. You’re so misinformed, all you have to do is ask for it. "

Speaking for a third time, Fauci said, "What are you talking about? My financial disclosures are public knowledge and have been so. You’re getting amazingly wrong information."

However, the litigation casts doubt on Fauci’s statements. 

Salary: two years behind. The latest salary available on Dr. Anthony Fauci ($434,312) is from FY2020. However, the current fiscal year FY2022 started last October 1st. The agency refused to release Fauci’s current salary on a request for comment just two weeks ago.

Employment contract: what are the terms of Fauci’s employment as director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases and chief medical advisor to President Biden? Is Fauci receiving income from other federal agencies or entities? 

Confidentiality agreement: does Fauci have a hush agreement with the agency? If so, what is he not allowed to publicly discuss?

Conflict of Interest and Financial Disclosures: one journalist said she received 2019 disclosure documents via FOIA. However, that’s  three fiscal years ago. For more recent years, disclosures weren’t forthcoming and lawsuits were filed.  

Job description: vital to know that powers and duties charged to Dr. Anthony Fauci. For example, does Fauci consult to the Department of Defense for his biodefense work? Does he have a security clearance and if so at what level?

Royalties: does Fauci receive royalties? If so, from whom? Since 2005, NIH was supposed to post a database of all scientists receiving royalties on its website. However, the database doesn’t exist online and NIH was sued for it.

Calendar: another FOIA request for Fauci’s daily calendar was filed, and, unfortunately, another lawsuit was filed by Judicial Watch. 

Transparency advocates are calling on NIH to immediately post online Dr. Fauci’s financial and conflict documents – without redactions. 

NIH was contacted for a request for comment, and if there is a response, then the piece will be updated.