Dr. Anthony Fauci enjoyed a $15 million taxpayer-funded security detail after retiring from public service in December 2022, according to a new report.
The former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and ex-chief medical adviser to presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden was protected by federal marshals between January 2, 2023, and September 30, 2024, a memorandum of understanding shows. The Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Marshals Service arranged Fauci’s post-retirement protection.
The document was first reported by investigative journalist Jordan Schachtel and Open the Books, a nonprofit that calls for transparent government spending. The memorandum was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act inquiry.
“This is part of a pattern of obfuscation when it comes to the NIH’s financial arrangements,” Open the Books spokesman Christopher Neefus told National Review. “Whether it’s Dr. Fauci’s contract and full compensation, or the NIH's multibillion-dollar royalty complex, we've been working for years to get full transparency.”
The $15 million in funds covers, in part, salaries and benefits for deputy marshals and administrative personnel assigned to Fauci’s security detail, costs pertaining to Fauci’s transportation, and law enforcement equipment.
The non-binding agreement says the contract may be extended or renewed. It remains unclear if it has been, Open the Books and Schachtel say.
When Fauci still worked for the federal government, HHS provided protection for the public-health official. After questioning HHS about who took over that responsibility following Fauci’s retirement, Senator Rand Paul (R., Ky.) discovered last year that it was the U.S. Marshals Service.
The congressman said he was told that the U.S. Marshals Service wasn’t directly paying for the detail, but rather it was reimbursing “somebody else” who did.
“So it’s a terrible example of the government lying to its representatives and to the people. But also, why is a retired guy — the only retired official I know of that gets this kind of treatment is a former president,” Paul told Fox News host Jesse Watters in July 2023. “So I have no idea why this bureaucrat still has a limo driver security detail.”
Fauci defended having his own protective detail in a media interview last October. The retired official said he is a “big, big target of the extreme radical right.”
"I get so many threats. Some of them are credible threats of violence . . . that I have to be walking around with federal marshals protecting me, which is completely crazy," he said.
Meanwhile, former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was repeatedly denied Secret Service protection by the Biden administration until former president Donald Trump was shot in July. The protection was withdrawn once Kennedy suspended his campaign.
Fauci became the highest-paid federal employee from 2019 to 2022 amid the Covid-19 pandemic. His household net worth — which includes his wife, chief NIH bioethicist Christine Grady — exceeded $12.6 million in fiscal year 2021.
Fauci left his government job with a record $480,654 salary, surpassing the president’s annual pay. His annual pension is estimated to be at least $375,000, according to Open the Books. By 2025, the nonprofit projected that figure would reach $414,000 per year.
“Capacity to protect our public officials is clearly stretched,” Neefus said, “so it's important for taxpayers to know whether this arrangement will continue and decide whether they ought to shoulder the costs.”
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