Sen. Rand Paul, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, stood in front of cameras this week and said something that should have led every newscast in America: "Some of the communications between Anthony Fauci and his assistant involve some programs that are very worrisome, gain-of-function programs that we didn't know existed until we came across these emails."
Programs Congress didn't know existed. In emails Congress had to fight to obtain.
The Kentucky Republican has spent years pursuing Anthony Fauci over the origins of COVID-19 and the risky life sciences research the former health official repeatedly denied funding. This new tranche of emails goes beyond the familiar dispute over whether gain-of-function research was happening at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. These communications describe programs that were never disclosed to the congressional committees that are supposed to oversee them.
Fauci's former assistant has already invoked the Fifth Amendment — the constitutional right against self-incrimination — rather than answer questions about the alleged destruction of records related to the investigation. Paul's committee moved to offer the assistant limited immunity to compel testimony. The vote failed 8-7 along party lines. Every Republican on the 15-member committee voted yes. Every Democrat voted no — six of them by proxy, not even bothering to show up.
Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, the lone Democrat who voted in person, said she lacked sufficient information to support the immunity proposal. The committee had just revealed the existence of previously unknown gain-of-function programs hidden in official emails. The senator's position is that she needs more information before she can vote to get more information.
"For those watching, let me be clear what just happened here," Paul said after the vote. "A majority of the Committee voted to seek the truth." A majority — but not the two-thirds supermajority required to grant immunity. Eight senators wanted answers. Seven decided the questions were close enough.
Paul's committee launched a public "Reading Room" in the summer of 2026 to make investigation documents available to the public. The emails describing unknown gain-of-function programs are now part of that record. They exist. They're in writing. The programs they reference were funded with public money and concealed from public oversight.
"I think everybody should be for transparency, whether a Republican or a Democrat," Paul said.
Seven Democrats disagreed.
"This is disappointing," Paul added. "It doesn't end here."