Republican senators on Capitol Hill on Monday released a new batch of COVID-era text messages from Dr. Anthony Fauci’s government-issued cellphone, escalating scrutiny of behind-the-scenes pandemic discussions.
Sens. Ron Johnson and Rand Paul made public a series of messages dated January 25 and 26, 2021, including exchanges about COVID-19 vaccines and guidance for pregnant women.
The texts involved Fauci, Rochelle Walensky, then director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Vivek Murthy, the former U.S. surgeon general.
One message released by the Republican senators shows Fauci expressing concern in January 2021 that a second dose of the COVID vaccine “theoretically could be associated with miscarriage in the 1st trimester.”
In another message, Murthy asked Fauci and Walensky whether they had seen a World Health Organization advisory “against pregnant women taking the Moderna vaccine bc of lack of data?”
“It has led to a flurry of questions. What is your take? I imagine we will all get asked about this,” Murthy wrote as he sought their views.
Fauci replied that, for pregnant women, “one must weigh the potential risks against the benefits” of vaccination compared with the risks of COVID itself, adding that “animal tox studies did not raise any red flags.”
Murthy later described the WHO language as a “strong [one] to make” and warned it was “potentially quite damaging to public confidence among pregnant women.”

Fauci appeared before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee at the Capitol, Wednesday, July 29, 2026, in Washington

One of the texts released by the GOP duo reveals that Fauci was concerned in January 2021 that the second dose of the COVID shot ‘theoretically could be associated with miscarriage in the 1st trimester of pregnancy

Dr Rochelle Walensky, the former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
In total, the senators noted that the phone contains more than 34,000 text messages and 522 voicemails.
Curiously, the Republicans found that Fauci only had three contacts listed, raising questions of whether the data may have been ‘deleted.’
‘Oddly, only three contacts are listed; all other text messages are identified only with phone numbers rather than contact names. It is too early to determine whether any data has been deleted,’ the investigators noted.

Former Surgeon General Dr Vivek Murthy raised to Fauci a recommendation from the WHO that advised ‘against pregnant women taking the Moderna vaccine bc of lack of data’

Murthy raised concerns about a WHO announcement advising ‘against pregnant women taking the Moderna vaccine bc of lack of data’

Fauci responded that ‘pregnant women one must weigh the potential risks against the benefits,’ of getting the vaccine versus COVID itself
Johnson has requested transcribed interviews with the infamous COVID-19 doctor, as well as other Food and Drug Administration officials.
Johnson alleges that senior FDA officials ignored warnings that the agency’s COVID-19 vaccine safety monitoring system was failing to detect potential safety signals.
The closed-door transcribed interview process is what the House Oversight Committee has been using in the Epstein investigations. Information obtained has been released to the general public within days of the interviews.
Johnson is requesting that Fauci appear before his committee to ‘provide much-needed transparency about the COVID-19 pandemic and the government’s response to it, including early treatments and the development, deployment, safety monitoring, and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines.’
Fauci appeared before the Senate for a bombshell hearing last month, during which he invoked the Fifth Amendment 111 times under questioning from Senators. He was found by Paul’s committee to be in contempt of Congress. Paul later referred the contempt vote to the Department of Justice.
During his opening statements on Capitol Hill in last month’s hearing, Fauci accused Paul of having an ‘unhinged obsession’ with him.
And several moments went off the rails.
Republican Senator Bernie Moreno called Fauci a ‘total disgrace,’ also noting that he felt compelled to run for office six years ago when he saw a story of a mom being arrested while watching a football game outside with her family, due to breaking guidelines issued by governments based on Fauci’s advice.
‘Who the f**k do you think you were for doing that? It was a total disgrace to this country, and if my Democrat colleagues are standing there defending you, I hope the voters of the United States of America have watched clips of every one of them building a guy who was more interested in being a celebrity than doing his job,’ he exclaimed.
Fauci’s lead attorney, David Schertler, was also removed by security from the hearing after trying to speak on his client’s behalf.
‘I didn’t invite you here to testify,’ Paul told him, before ordering guards to eject him.
Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, later read out a statement from Schertler accusing Paul of running something other than ‘a serious effort to seek information.’ The Republican, it said, has ‘built a personal brand’ around his pursuit of the doctor.
Paul hit back that in no courtroom in America can a witness plead the Fifth and then have his lawyer testify for him.
‘The attorney is complaining and testifying, saying you didn’t do it. The prosecution is unfair. You don’t get to do that,’ he said. ‘That’s one thing you give up when you take the Fifth Amendment and say I’m not going to testify.”He was not invited to testify, he was out of order, and it was appropriate to have him ejected,’ Paul told the room of attendees and reporters at the hearing.
Fauci’s personal diaries were released by Paul last month, showing how he delighted in his interactions with celebrities as America went through the death throes of the early pandemic.
The doctor commented on his own fame in general, including one post on April 7 of 2020, nearly a month after the pandemic began.
‘Press still hot and heavy about me. Multiple stories per day directly or indirectly involving me,” Fauci wrote.
He described the ‘national and international fame is explosive and really unimaginable’ by May 21.
In late June of 2020, Fauci wrote in one entry that he’s been asked to participate on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars.