Louisiana's attorney general announced a state investigation into Dr. Anthony Fauci days after he invoked the Fifth Amendment 111 times before a Senate committee, making Louisiana the third state to signal that Joe Biden's federal pardon may not shield Fauci from accountability.
Attorney General Liz Murrill made the announcement Saturday on X, accusing Fauci of lying under oath and pointing to newly surfaced records that she says contradict testimony he gave during an earlier deposition. Florida and Alabama had already opened their own inquiries, and the rapid pile-on from Republican-led states marks a coordinated effort to test whether state courts can reach conduct that a presidential pardon placed beyond federal prosecutors' grasp.
Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, appeared Wednesday before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Capitol Hill. He refused to answer senators' questions, invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 111 times over the course of the hearing.
Fox News Digital reported that it reached out to Fauci's attorney for comment. No response was included in the reporting.
Murrill's post laid out a specific rationale. Louisiana and Missouri had previously deposed Fauci, a process in which he answered questions under oath, and Murrill says the answers he gave then do not hold up against records Fauci himself kept at the time.
She wrote on X:
"Fauci lied. Louisiana and Missouri deposed Dr. Fauci. At the time, he claimed to not recall many key details of his own actions and now we are discovering contemporaneous records he kept."
She followed that with a second post announcing the investigation directly:
"Louisiana will join Alabama & Florida in investigating Fauci and whether he committed any other offenses that could be pursued in our State courts."
The gap Murrill identifies, between Fauci's claims of poor memory and the existence of detailed personal records from the same period, is the kind of discrepancy that can form the basis of a perjury or false-statement case. Fauci's personal diaries have already drawn scrutiny for what they reveal about his awareness of key intelligence during the pandemic.
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry backed Murrill's move within hours. Landry, who served as Louisiana's attorney general before taking the governor's office, noted that he personally participated in Fauci's deposition.
Landry wrote on X:
"As someone who was Attorney General alongside Eric Schmitt, and deposed Dr. Fauci, I am happy to have Louisiana join Alabama and Florida!"
The legal theory driving all three state investigations rests on a straightforward constitutional boundary. A presidential pardon applies only to offenses against the United States, federal crimes. It has no authority over state criminal law. If Fauci committed perjury, fraud, or any other offense under the laws of Louisiana, Florida, or Alabama, Biden's pardon cannot stop a state prosecutor from bringing charges.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, the Alabama Republican who is running for governor, made that point explicitly. He told Fox News Digital:
"Anthony Fauci is responsible for the deaths of millions of Americans and tens of thousands of Alabamians. The 'pardon' signed by Joe Biden's autopen doesn't apply to state-level crimes."
Tuberville went further, outlining what he would do if elected to lead the state:
"When I'm governor of Alabama, I will look into ways we can hold Fauci accountable for all of the Alabamians who died under his watch."
Before Fauci's Senate appearance, congressional Republicans had already warned him that the pardon would not protect him if he lied during testimony. His decision to invoke the Fifth 111 times rather than answer questions suggests his legal team took that warning seriously, though the blanket refusal to testify has only accelerated political pressure from state-level officials.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced his state's investigation on Thursday, two days after the Senate hearing. He told Fox News Digital that "any and all potential violations of Florida law" are under review. Alabama had previously announced its own inquiry, though no specific date for that announcement appears in the reporting.
The speed of the cascade matters. Wednesday's hearing produced the spectacle of a former top government health official refusing to answer basic questions from elected senators. By Thursday, Florida had opened an investigation. By Saturday, Louisiana joined. Three states in four days.
None of the three attorneys general have publicly identified specific statutes they believe Fauci may have violated at the state level. Murrill's statement focuses on the conflict between Fauci's deposition testimony and his own contemporaneous records. Uthmeier cast a wider net, referencing "any and all potential violations." The precise legal theories remain to be seen.
What is clear is that Fauci's strategy of silence before the Senate has not quieted the pursuit. If anything, invoking the Fifth 111 times, after GOP senators argued Biden's pardon left him no place to hide, handed his critics a number that fits on a bumper sticker and a narrative that fits in a courtroom.
The state investigations did not materialize from nowhere. Over recent months, the release of Fauci's personal diary entries opened a window into his conduct during the pandemic that contradicted the careful public image he maintained for years. Those entries showed a figure far more aware of key details than his sworn testimony suggested.
Murrill's accusation, that Fauci "claimed to not recall many key details of his own actions" while keeping contemporaneous records that show otherwise, draws a direct line from those diary revelations to the legal question of whether he gave truthful testimony under oath. If a witness says he cannot remember something, and his own notes from the time prove he could, prosecutors have a case to make.
Fauci's attorney has not responded publicly to any of the three state announcements. The former NIAID director, who once commanded daily press briefings and magazine covers, now faces the prospect of defending himself not in one jurisdiction but in at least three, with the possibility that more could follow.
Biden's pardon was supposed to close the book. Three Republican attorneys general are betting it only closed the federal chapter.
