Republican officials in Alabama, Florida, and California are moving to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci accountable under state law after he invoked his Fifth Amendment right 111 times during a Senate hearing, arguing that Joe Biden's blanket pardon shields him only from federal prosecution.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier confirmed his office is investigating "any and all potential violations of Florida law" tied to Fauci's conduct during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, favored to succeed term-limited Gov. Kay Ivey, pledged to pursue state charges against the 85-year-old former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases if elected governor. And in California, Republican gubernatorial nominee Steve Hilton announced plans for a COVID Accountability Commission to examine Fauci and state officials over pandemic-era policies.
The push follows a combative Senate hearing Wednesday at which Fauci repeatedly declined to answer questions, citing his right against self-incrimination. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri argued that Biden's blanket pardon had already eliminated Fauci's federal criminal exposure for covered conduct, undercutting his legal basis for refusing to testify. The Constitution limits presidential pardons to "offenses against the United States," a distinction Tuberville and others seized on to argue that state-level prosecution remains wide open.
Tuberville, who served on the Senate HELP Committee and says he heard regularly from Fauci during the pandemic, did not hold back. He told Fox News Digital that Biden's pardon changes nothing at the state level.
"Anthony Fauci is responsible for the deaths of millions of Americans and tens of thousands of Alabamians. The 'pardon' signed by Joe Biden's autopen doesn't apply to state-level crimes."
Tuberville said he would, as governor, order Fauci to appear in Montgomery to face state charges. He also urged individual Alabamians to bring civil claims against the former NIAID chief, citing between 20,000 and 30,000 COVID-related deaths in the state.
Speaking to Newsmax from the Capitol, Tuberville went further, saying Fauci "should be locked up before he leaves this building today." In a separate Fox Business appearance, he referenced revelations from Fauci's own diary, saying the doctor "lied... and knew he was lying." Those diary entries, part of a broader pattern of concealment that has drawn bipartisan scrutiny, reportedly show Fauci privately taking credit for COVID-19 lockdowns he publicly denied supporting and criticizing Gov. Ron DeSantis, calling the Florida governor a "jerk" and worse.
Tuberville framed the legal road ahead in blunt terms:
"He's going to court every day of his life for the rest of his life. And he's going (to) have to look these people in the face, these families, because the pardon does not cover state government."
In Tallahassee, Uthmeier's office signaled a broad inquiry. Press secretary Jae Williams laid out the scope in a statement to Fox News Digital:
"Our inquiry will focus on what Fauci knew, when he knew it, and how he misled the American people. We will examine the physical and monetary harms to Floridians that may have resulted from his deceptions and determine whether his conduct exposes him to liability under state law."
The statement left the door open to both criminal and civil avenues, though no formal charges have been filed. Whether Uthmeier's office has formally opened an investigation or remains at an exploratory stage is not yet clear from the public record. The Florida AG's announcement came in direct response to Fauci's refusal to answer senators' questions.
Florida Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, a 100-percent-disabled retired amputee veteran now running to succeed DeSantis as governor, backed the probe in a Thursday interview. Collins described the personal cost of pandemic-era mandates in terms most politicians never have to.
"I had to make a choice of getting my prosthetic care and having a leg to walk on versus taking an immunization that I didn't want or believe in."
Collins said the Veterans Affairs system required a COVID-19 shot for access to prosthetic care, a mandate that forced a wounded veteran to choose between his mobility and his medical autonomy. He called for accountability across the board.
"There has to be accountability... between families getting threatened and our kids not being able to potentially go to school because of the risks coming from Fauci."
Collins credited DeSantis with standing against federal pressure during the pandemic, saying the governor "became America's governor" and calling him the "greatest governor in our state's history, largely because of what he did in COVID." He added: "We protected America. We pushed back on the Fauci-Ouchie and all the nonsense that came from it... I'm glad (Fauci) was offended."
DeSantis himself responded to Fauci's diary entries, which included personal attacks on the governor, by calling Fauci "the most destructive bureaucrat in the history of the United States of America" on Fox News. His office directed reporters to those comments when asked for further reaction.
On the other side of the country, Steve Hilton watched Fauci plead the Fifth and drafted a plan of his own. The California Republican gubernatorial nominee issued a statement calling the hearing "an absolute disgrace" and asking, "when will there be any accountability for this guy."
Hilton, who won his primary on June 2, 2026, announced a proposed COVID Accountability Commission in a Facebook video, saying the panel would examine Fauci and California state officials over policies "who caused so much pain and suffering and cruelty in this absolute disaster of public policy." California, under its current leadership, followed Fauci's pandemic prescriptions more closely than almost any other state, a record Hilton clearly intends to make a centerpiece of his general-election campaign.
The proposal carries no legal force unless Hilton wins the governorship, but it signals how far the political fallout from Fauci's Senate performance has spread. Whistleblower testimony about Fauci's role in steering intelligence agencies away from the lab-leak theory has only deepened the appetite for answers among Republican officials nationwide.
The constitutional argument driving these state-level efforts is straightforward. Presidential pardons, under Article II, cover "offenses against the United States", meaning federal crimes. They do not reach state criminal statutes or state civil liability. It is the same legal distinction that left former President Richard Nixon exposed to potential state prosecution even after Gerald Ford's pardon, though no state ever pursued charges.
Hawley pressed this point during the hearing, arguing that because Biden's pardon had already removed Fauci's federal criminal exposure, Fauci had no legitimate Fifth Amendment basis for refusing to answer. The Fifth Amendment protects individuals from being compelled to give testimony that could incriminate them, but if the pardon already covers the federal conduct in question, the self-incrimination risk shifts entirely to the state level. A contempt vote now looms as senators weigh whether Fauci's repeated refusals to testify warrant formal action.
Fauci's counsel did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey's office was also contacted about whether she would pursue similar action in the final months of her administration; no response was reported.
What specific state laws Alabama and Florida might invoke against Fauci remains an open question. Neither Tuberville nor Uthmeier's office identified particular statutes. The Florida AG's statement referenced "physical and monetary harms to Floridians" and "deceptions" but stopped short of naming a cause of action. Whether these probes produce indictments, civil suits, or political pressure without formal charges will depend on facts that have not yet been made public.
Congressional leaders had already warned Fauci that Biden's pardon would not protect him if he misled the Senate, a warning he apparently chose to sidestep by declining to answer at all. That strategy may have kept him out of a perjury trap, but it opened the door to contempt proceedings and handed state-level prosecutors a politically potent narrative: the man who told America how to live for two years will not answer basic questions about what he knew and when he knew it.
Fauci pleaded the Fifth 111 times. Alabama, Florida, and California are now asking whether the answers he refused to give belong to the states, and their citizens, instead.
