Instead of clearing the air, he leaned on constitutional protection, which tends to raise eyebrows when the public was told for years to trust every word from the public health throne. That pardon may protect Fauci from federal prosecution, but it does not block state prosecutors from asking their own questions. That history gives Uthmeier’s investigation a sharper edge, because Florida was not exactly eager to bow before the public health bureaucracy. WATCH:Paul has argued that those writings show a gap between Fauci’s private thinking and the public health decisions he promoted. For years, conservatives were mocked for asking basic questions about mandates, school closures, lab origins, and the power handed to public health officials.