House Oversight & Government Reform Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., has demanded that former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra explain why he withheld Dr. Anthony Fauci’s personal diary and government phone from a select subcommittee investigating the origins of COVID-19 and the federal government’s pandemic response.
In a letter sent Wednesday to Becerra, Comer requested answers by September 2, asserting that “the Biden Administration repeatedly concealed information and stonewalled our investigation.” He called it “unacceptable” that HHS did not provide Fauci’s diary and phone despite records requests that Comer claims covered the materials.
The dispute follows the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s release last month of more than 1,100 pages from Fauci’s personal diary, written on government-issued computers between 2019 and 2022. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. produced the diary after it was discovered on department servers, according to Comer’s letter.
Kennedy also provided a copy of Fauci’s government phone to the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, per the letter.
Comer stated that the discoveries raise questions about HHS’s response to a November 2023 congressional request seeking documents and communications containing terms such as “COVID-19,” “gain-of-function,” and “Wuhan.” Those terms appear throughout the diary, but Becerra’s department neither produced the diary nor acknowledged its existence.
The committee chair is demanding explanations for why the diary and phone were not provided, whether Becerra knew they existed during his tenure, and whether other responsive records went unproduced. Comer also asked if any Biden administration officials, including political appointees at HHS or the White House, advised or pressured Becerra to omit documents.
The latest inquiry comes amid renewed Republican scrutiny of Fauci’s pandemic-era actions. During a July Senate hearing, Fauci repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment rights while answering questions about his handling of COVID-19 and government records.
Comer said the committee is seeking “answers and accountability” over why potentially significant records were not turned over when Republicans first investigated the government’s pandemic response.
