The secrets hidden in Fauci’s pardon
Deplatformed is a weekly column that looks into the nether reaches of the internet—outside the big few that everyone already covers—to tell you the political discourse online. It runs on Thursdays in the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter.
If you want to get this column a day before we publish it, subscribe to web_crawlr, where you’ll get the daily scoop of internet culture delivered straight to your inbox.
Featured Video
On Monday morning, before leaving office, former President Joe Biden issued a blanket pardon to Dr. Anthony Fauci, who spearheaded the nation’s COVID-19 pandemic response.
The pardon came amid myriad others the outgoing president issued, including for former Rep. Liz Cheney and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Miley, to save them from potentially retributive prosecution by President Donald Trump.
The idea of pardoning Fauci, who served as head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, had been floated in recent months, in the wake of Trump’s electoral victory.
Though an apolitical bureaucrat and scientist, he became the focus of conservative ire over the pandemic, and the right blamed him for lockdowns, mask mandates, and the COVID-19 vaccine, all of which were signs of a tyrannical, overwrought government.
Although it’s unclear what political charges Trump could pursue against Fauci, Biden said in his statement he hoped it would prevent any kind of intense investigation.
“Even when individuals have done nothing wrong—and in fact have done the right thing—and will ultimately be exonerated, the mere fact of being investigated or prosecuted can irreparably damage reputations and finances,” Biden said in his statement announcing the pardons.
Fauci, himself, noted that he’d been threatened with prosecution.
“Despite the accomplishments that my colleagues and I achieved over my long career of public service, I have been the subject of politically-motivated threats of investigation and prosecution,” Fauci said according to the Washington Post. “There is absolutely no basis for these threats. Let me be perfectly clear: I have committed no crime.”
Conspiracy theorists dive into Biden’s pardon of Fauci
But to some online, the language of the pardon to Fauci’s detractors did seem to reveal exactly what crime he committed.
Biden, you see, wasn’t exactly pardoning him over his response to the pandemic, but for a much bigger scandal that went down earlier in his tenure.
Biden’s pardon cleared Fauci from prosecution for any act from 2014 forward, which, according to some, is right when Fauci began operating illegal biolabs in Ukraine and China.
“Holy shit… Fauci’s pardon ALSO begins on January 1st, 2014, just like Hunter. Why? Because this is when the Obama CIA/State Dept took over Ukraine, and began gain of function research on bat coronaviruses in Ukraine, which Fauci spearheaded,” wrote a top post on Gab, the right-wing social media site.
The biolabs in Ukraine conspiracy has been around for a while
The idea that the U.S. ran secret bioweapons in labs has long percolated, with Russia even citing it as a rationale for its invasion of Ukraine back in 2022.
It stems from two different occurrences.
In 2014, Ukraine’s Maidan Revolution overthrew the sitting president, who had strong ties to Russia. The Kremlin called it a U.S.-backed coup. In the wake of the revolution, Russia invaded Crimea, and the U.S. began heavily supplying the Ukrainian military.
Around that same time, unrelatedly, then-President Barack Obama issued a government directive to halt “gain of function” research, bio-engineering conducted to make pathogens more deadly to improve both pandemic responses and vaccinations.
With a ban on work he oversaw, Fauci (in the conspiracy’s view) went to a “proxy” nation that, taking U.S. military aid, had no choice but to accept his work.
“Former President Joe Biden went back and picked 2014 for the Anthony Fauci pardon, it’s because that’s when Barack Obama and Fauci took over the Ukraine Biolabs,” wrote another on Gab.
Of course, like any good Biden accusation, Hunter also factors in.
Hunter Biden’s investment firm, Rosemont Seneca, owned a 13% stake in a company called Metabiota back in, you guessed it, 2014. Metabiota researches pathogens and worked in Ukraine with a defense contractor that built labs in Ukraine.
And it was this particular tie Russia cited after its invasion, alleging that Hunter Biden was secretly helping the U.S. conduct deadly research right next door to them.
“An investment fund run by … Hunter Biden funded research and the implementation of the United States’ military biological program. It is obvious that Joe Biden, as his father and the head of state, was aware of that activity,” Vyacheslav Volodin, the head of Russia’s parliament reportedly said back in March 2024.
That work didn’t just occur in Ukraine though. Fauci also helped fund gain of function research at a lab in Wuhan, China, which studied bat coronaviruses.
Which is still the leading alternative theory of how COVID-19 erupted.
So while Fauci may not be criminally liable for any of his pandemic responses, he certainly could be investigated and charged with violating a federal edict on “gain of function.”
Why else would Biden date the pardon to that specific year?
“Bingo. Color revolution and bio labs coincide perfectly,” wrote a poster on the pro-Trump forum.
“2014 was when everything started going tits up,” added another.
It’s the final diabolical act of the Biden crime family.
The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.