A Republican senator who grilled Dr Anthony Fauci over his financial disclosures – leading a frustrated Fauci to call him under his breath a ‘moron’ – has published the public health expert’s federal records.
The records show that Fauci – the highest-paid federal employee, who earns more than President Joe Biden – and his wife, the top bioethicist at the National Institutes of Health, have a combined wealth of $10.4 million.
Fauci, 80, has lead the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984 and, if he continues until the end of Biden’s term in 2024, will have made roughly $2.5 million as the president’s chief medical advisor. He earns $434,312 a year as head of the NIAID, where Biden’s salary is $400,000.
Fauci’s records show that he and his wife were paid $5,000 to attend a virtual awards ceremony in December 2020, and also have an interest in an Italian restaurant in San Francisco, Jackson Fillmore Trattoria. The restaurant did not make them any money, however, the disclosures show.
Fauci’s wife, Christine Grady, 69, is also still working full-time at the National Institutes of Health on an annual salary of $176,000.
Roger Marshall, who represents Kansas, clashed with the 80-year-old on Tuesday. Marshall wanted to see Fauci’s financial information; Fauci told him the documents were public.
Dr Anthony Fauci is seen on Tuesday, during a heated Congressional hearing, holding up a screenshot from Rand Paul’s website where he fundraises by getting supporters to pay to donate to his ‘Fire Dr Fauci’ campaign
Fauci was grilled by Roger Marshall, a Republican senator for Kansas, over his financial disclosures
Marshall, as a senator, is paid $174,000 a year. Joe Biden as president earns $400,000 a year; Fauci is the highest paid public servant, earning $434,312
‘Yes or no, would you be willing to submit to Congress and the public a financial disclosure that includes your past and current investments?’ Marshall asked. ‘Our office cannot find them.’
Fauci replied: ‘I don’t understand why you’re asking me that question.
‘My financial disclosure is public knowledge and has been so for the last 37 years or so.’
The Center for Public Integrity reported that Fauci’s financial statements were indeed public available, but noted obtaining them was a lengthy procedure: they requested the document in May 2020 and not receive it until three months later.
The publicly available salary information for Fauci shows he earned $3.6 million from 2010 to 2019.
He will make roughly $2.5 million more for the years 2020 through 2024 if he stays on through Biden’s current term.
Financial records from December 2020 show that the New York-born medical expert has a contributory IRA with $638,519.70 in it, and a brokerage trust account with $2,403,522.28.
All his accounts are with Charles Schwab: the most valuable of the three disclosed being a Schwab One Trust containing $5,295,898.92.
His three accounts have a total of $8,337,940.90.
She has two accounts – an IRA, containing $120,277.82, and a Schwab One Trust with $1,962,819.27 – giving a total of $2,083,097.09.
Between them, the pair are worth $10.4 million.
By comparison, the CEO of Pfizer, Albert Bourla, was paid $21 million last year.
Fauci is pictured in October 2016 with his wife Christine Grady, the Chief of the Department of Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health. The pair married in 1983 and have three daughters. She earns $176,000 for her work
The veteran public health expert had $5.3 million in his trust account
Fauci had $2.4m in a brokerage trust account
His third of three accounts, an IRA, contained $639,000
Fauci’s wife, Christine Grady, had $120,000 in her IRA
Grady also had $1.96 million in her trust account
Fauci was paid $5,000 – declared as a gift – to attend a virtual gala in December 2020
Fauci is paid $434,312 as head of the NIAID.
By comparison, the president’s salary has been $400,000 annually since 2001.
Fauci, a public servant for almost 40 years, also qualifies for Social Security and a full federal pension.
Fauci and Grady met in 1983 ‘over the bed of a patient,’ she told In Style magazine – Grady then a clinical nurse specialist at the NIH in Washington, D.C., and Fauci an attending physician at the NIH.
They married that year, and have three daughters.
Fauci appeared on the cover of In Style magazine in July 2020
Marshall, angered by Fauci’s insistence that his financial records were indeed public, on Friday announced he was introducing the FAUCI Act ‘to hold Anthony Fauci and other high-paid government officials accountable’.
He added: ‘If you’re an unelected bureaucrat, and you make hundreds of thousands of dollars, America needs to know if you have any conflicts of interest.’
Hours later, Marshall published the document, stating: ‘I obtained Dr. Fauci’s previously unpublished financial disclosures.
‘Dr. Fauci was completely dishonest about his disclosures being readily accessible to the public which is why I am releasing them now,’ he tweeted.
He also handed them to Fox, stating that Fauci is ‘more concerned with being a media star and posing for the cover of magazines than he is being honest with the American people and holding China accountable for the COVID pandemic that has taken the lives of almost 850,000 Americans.’
Fauci’s money was largely from his salary, the documents show.
He also earned between $100,000 and $1 million from his books, including multiple imprints of Harrison’s Principals of Internal Medicine – a textbook referenced widely by medical professionals.
Fauci has been on the editorial board of Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine since 1983, and in July 2019 was reimburse $6,328 for six-day trip to La Jolla to attend an editorial board meeting, his disclosures show.
Fauci has been on the editorial board of Harrison’s since 1983
He also has been on the editorial board of Harrison’s Manual of Medicine, which was launched as a companion to the 15th edition of the main textbook, and has edited four editions of Harrison’s Rheumatology.
Fauci also coedited three editions of Harrison’s Infectious Diseases.
In November, Fauci published ‘Expect the Unexpected: Ten Lessons on Truth, Service, and the Way Forward’.
He was not paid for the book, or the documentary that accompanied it.
‘The book was developed by National Geographic Books in connection with an upcoming National Geographic Documentary Film about Dr. Fauci,’ said a spokesman.
‘He will not earn any royalties from its publication.’
He did, however, receive $5,000 to attend, with his wife, the RFK ‘Ripple of Hope’ virtual gala, in December 2020.
He was also reimbursed $5,198 for costs associated with his being awarded federal employee of the year and being given the Service to America medal, in October 2020.
Fauci declared a stake in the Jackson-Fillmore restaurant in San Francisco – but it did not make him any money
Fauci’s finances have long been a source of online conspiracy theories.
A Facebook post early in the pandemic claimed Fauci downplayed the potential use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus patients because he stands to lose $100 million on a Gates-funded vaccine if the alternatives are proven to work. The post was marked as disinformation.
Fauci himself has hit back, pointing out that his critics are now using personal attacks on him to fundraise.
Rand Paul, the Kentucky senator who relishes challenging Fauci in Congressional hearings, now has a button on his website where people can donate to his campaign funds, via a ‘Fire Fauci’ contribution.
Fauci said that Paul was ‘making money by making me the villain’.
He added: ‘I have threats upon my life.
‘Harassment of my family, and my children, with obscene phone calls because people are lying about me.’