EXCLUSIVE: NIH Provides Brief Fauci Job Description but Withholds All Contracts

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, gives an opening statement during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing to discuss the ongoing federal response to COVID-19, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on May 11, 2021. Greg Nash/Pool via Reuters

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is withholding records related to Dr. Anthony Fauci’s employment, including all copies of his job contracts.

In response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for Fauci’s job descriptions and job contracts, the NIH provided a brief job description and a longer, outdated version. But the agency ignored the request for the contracts.

Karen Lampe, with the NIH’s Freedom of Information Office, has refused to acknowledge a failure to process the request properly. The NIH’s Office of the Director declined to provide a comment by deadline. Fauci and his agency didn’t return requests for comment.

“Dr. Fauci is untouchable, he’s protected, and essentially unreviewable even by his own employer, the National Institutes of Health,” Adam Andrzejewski, CEO and founder of OpenTheBooks.com, told The Epoch Times in an email. “The Fauci employment contract is so sensitive that the agency is violating FOIA statutes and using expensive taxpayer-funded litigation to withhold it from the American people.”

Andrzejewski’s group discovered that Fauci is the highest-paid government employee and uncovered some documentation as to why that is the case.

Fauci was appointed under Title 42 in 2000, enabling him to make more money, the NIH has confirmed.

Fauci was appointed as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the NIH, in 1984.

A document from 2004 showed Dr. Raynard Kington, at the time the agency’s deputy director, calling for the pay adjustment to be made permanent because Fauci “continues to be routinely sought by academia and private industry,” with offered compensation levels “well above his current salary of [redacted].”

OpenTheBooks.com and Judicial Watch are locked in litigation with the NIH over the agency’s slow-walking of Freedom of Information Act requests pertaining to Fauci, including for his job contracts. The NIH has agreed to produce 300 pages a month to the plaintiffs, but decided to produce the documents related to Fauci last. That production won’t start until November.

While the attempt to get Fauci’s contracts has not been successful, The Epoch Times did obtain a brief description of Fauci’s duties, which has been withheld from other parties. The 177-word description is the most recent NIAID director “function statement,” according to Gorka Garcia-Malene, another NIH freedom of information officer.

Also included in the response was an outdated job description, apparently from before 2000.

“You requested Dr. Anthony Fauci’s job contract(s) and job description(s). NIH has processed 5 pages related to Dr. Fauci’s current job description, consisting of the most recent director of NIAID duties statement and NIAID director functional statement. Please note that since 2000, Dr. Fauci is appointed under Title 42, where there is a ’statement of duties’ versus a ‘position description,’” Garcia-Malene wrote.

“Unfortunately, NIH was unable to locate the statement of duties in place at the time Dr. Fauci was appointed. We were able to locate an older version of a position description and the most recent function statement for Director, NIAID and are releasing these records to you in full.”

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, the parent agency of the NIH, all appointments under Title 42 must include a statement of duties.

“It’s rather extraordinary that basic information about Fauci’s job duties are missing,” Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, told The Epoch Times.

“He’s the highest paid official in the government and we don’t know what his job duties are?”