Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

Trump Hints At Holding Fauci Accountable, Says He’ll Consider Pardoning Julian Assange If Reelected

(Screen Capture/CSPAN)

Former President Donald Trump hinted at holding Dr. Anthony Fauci accountable if elected president, and noted that he’ll consider pardoning Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

Trump commented on potentially prosecuting Fauci in an interview with Tim Pool moments before his speech at the Libertarian National Convention, telling the podcast host he’ll be “taking a look at that very seriously.” Trump also vowed to commute “Silk Road” founder Ross Ulbricht’s sentence at the conference.

Trump on holding Fauci accountable for lying to Congress:

“We’re gonna be looking at that quite seriously” pic.twitter.com/YRm2Y5o4Z1

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) May 28, 2024

Fauci came under intense scrutiny over his response to the COVID-19 pandemic and his agency’s funding of gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China through EcoHealth Alliance. The former National Institutes of Health head repeatedly denied that his agency funded the research during congressional testimony.

Pool asked Trump if Fauci will be held accountable “for the lying to Congress,” and if he intends to appoint an Attorney General who will prosecute Fauci.

“Yeah, and we’ll take a look at statute of limitations, because you know, the statute of limitations are quite long,” Trump said in the interview. “We’ll be taking a look at that very seriously.”

While many American workers and businesses were financially suffering under Fauci’s pandemic policies, his net worth increased by $5 million during that period.

Trump criticized the Biden administration for empowering Fauci while maintaining that he’s “the one that stopped the funding.

In January of 2020, Trump formed a Coronavirus Task Force that was composed of “the Nation’s foremost experts on infectious diseases,” which included Fauci, according to a White House press release. The task force was responsible for creating a policy plan to “monitor, contain, and mitigate the spread of the virus.”

“Fauci wasn’t a big player in my administration like he was after I left,” Trump said in the interview. “I mean, Biden made him the king of everything.”

Trump briefly addressed potentially pardoning Assange, who is facing 18 charges related to espionage and classified documents through WikiLeaks in 2010.

“We’re going to give it very serious consideration,” Trump said in the interview.

Assange is awaiting a hearing in London’s High Court where he is appealing his extradition to the United States.

During the conference, Trump also pledged to commute Ulbricht’s sentence, who founded the Silk Road website. Ulbricht is currently serving two life sentences plus 40 years in prison for creating the site which was used as an anonymous marketplace for many illegal transactions, according to a 2015 Justice Department press release.