Trump Says He Respects Biden’s Pardon of Fauci While Questioning Autopen Use After Senate Hearing

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he respects former President Joe Biden’s decision to pardon Dr. Anthony Fauci, while also raising questions about whether the pardon was personally signed by Biden following Fauci’s appearance before a Senate committee investigating the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking with reporters in the Oval Office, Trump reflected on the broad authority presidents possess when issuing pardons and acknowledged the significance of that constitutional power.
“The most powerful thing a president has, they say, is the power of pardon,” Trump said. “So he was pardoned by Biden, and I respect that. I know how powerful it is. … They say it’s literally the most powerful thing a president has.”
On his final day in office, Biden granted Fauci a pardon covering potential federal offenses committed between Jan. 1, 2014, and Jan. 19, 2025.
The pardon came roughly two years after Fauci retired following a 38-year career leading the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. During his career, Fauci served as chief medical adviser to President Biden and was also a leading figure in the first Trump administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although Trump said he respected the pardon itself, he suggested the method used to issue it could raise legal questions.
“The only thing you can think about” regarding the pardon, Trump said, was Biden’s reported use of an autopen.
Trump and members of his administration have argued that pardons and executive actions signed with an autopen should be considered invalid, although previous presidents have also used the device to sign official documents.
“He probably didn’t sign this one,” Trump said of Fauci’s pardon. “So, I can’t tell you what the law is. I’ve heard that you have to have a lot of proof, you need to have letters, you need to have all sorts of things.”
The president later added, “Maybe there’s something on the autopen. Other than that, the power of pardon is very powerful.”
Trump’s comments came hours after Fauci appeared before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee for a hearing that lasted approximately three hours.
During the hearing, Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 111 times as Republican lawmakers questioned him about his role during the pandemic.
Before the hearing began, committee Chairman Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., released thousands of pages from Fauci’s diary covering the years 2019 through 2022, spanning the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In his opening statement, Fauci defended his decision to invoke the Fifth Amendment, arguing that Paul’s repeated calls for his prosecution demonstrated the purpose behind the hearing.
“The only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something, anything, that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, ‘behind bars,’” Fauci said, referring to Paul’s “obvious obsession” with prosecuting him.
Following the hearing, Paul announced that he plans to seek a committee vote next week on holding Fauci in contempt of Congress.
Trump also weighed in on Fauci’s repeated invocation of the Fifth Amendment, describing it as “terrible.”
The president noted that Fauci had already been serving in government for decades before Trump took office.
“I inherited Fauci. He was here from the 1980s, so I had him for a period of time,” Trump said. “I disagreed with him on a lot. I would’ve had to close down the whole country if I listened to him.”