Florida AG Uthmeier opened investigation into Fauci hours after Fifth Amendment invocation, despite 2025 grand jury finding no applicable crime

On July 29, 2026, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced he was opening a state investigation into former White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci, hours after Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times before the Senate Homeland Security Committee. In a post on X, Uthmeier wrote that Fauci's "lack of candor to Congress is unbelievable" and that his office was "launching an investigation into Dr. Fauci" to get "the truth of what happened during COVID." Governor Ron DeSantis had argued hours earlier that Fauci's preemptive 2025 pardon from President Biden shields him only from federal prosecution and does not excuse invoking the Fifth Amendment, and separately said prosecuting Fauci in Florida would require a state attorney general or local state attorney to bring a case establishing a violation of state law; Uthmeier's investigation followed shortly after. Neither official identified a Florida statute Fauci is suspected of violating or any Florida-specific harm.

The announcement came despite a statewide grand jury, convened at DeSantis's own request, having already concluded in a report unsealed in January 2025 that it found "no statute that we believed would be an appropriate vehicle for a criminal indictment" related to COVID-19 vaccine manufacture and distribution by federal officials. Uthmeier — appointed by DeSantis in February 2025 — had told associates weeks before the Senate hearing that he was "losing sleep over thinking of ways to prosecute Fauci," according to reporting cited by Raw Story, suggesting the investigation was motivated by predetermined intent rather than new evidence surfaced at the hearing.