A US Senate committee has stated it obtained a backup copy of Anthony Fauci’s iPhone. The committee is currently considering whether to hold the former government health official in contempt of Congress.
The phone was used by Fauci during his tenure as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, including his role in the first Trump administration's Covid pandemic response in 2020.
Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, chair of the Senate homeland security permanent subcommittee on investigations, confirmed he had obtained a copy of the phone. Johnson wrote on social media, “Hopefully, this device will address many of the questions he refused to answer at last week’s hearing.” The Wall Street Journal reported that the US Department of Health and Human Services, led by Robert F Kennedy Jr, transferred the copy.
Last week, Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to testify multiple times during questioning. He accused Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, who chairs the Senate homeland security and government affairs committee, of having an “unhinged obsession” with him.