Donald Trump announced on Friday that he had withdrawn from his former Covid adviser, Doctor Anthony Fauci, the protection system he had benefited from for several years due to death threats issued against him.
This scientist and former senior American official, aged 84, became the face of the American response to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and received death threats on this occasion.
Known for his outspokenness, he had often contradicted Donald Trump, and is reviled by part of the right but also by conspiracy and anti-vax movements.
“You cannot benefit from protection for the rest of your life just because you worked for the government,” Donald Trump justified Friday during a press conference in North Carolina.
Dr. Fauci is the latest former senior official to lose his protection since the Republican's return to power.
Donald Trump's former White House national security adviser, John Bolton, and his former head of diplomacy, Mike Pompeo, were the subject of similar measures.
“They have all earned a lot of money, they can hire a private security service,” assured the American president, before slipping: “I can give them some numbers of very good security agents.”
Asked by a journalist what would happen if something happened to one of them, the Republican said: “I certainly wouldn't take responsibility for it.”
-According to American media, Mr. Fauci hired a private security team to ensure his protection.
The scientist headed the US National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for 38 years and advised Donald Trump then Joe Biden. He played a role in the fight against Covid-19 and AIDS.
He was one of the elected officials and former officials to have been preemptively pardoned by Joe Biden just before he left the White House.
A procedure justified by the Democrat to spare them “partisan” investigations or prosecutions, and strongly criticized by Donald Trump.
While thanking Joe Biden for his gesture, Anthony Fauci assured Monday that he had “committed no crime” likely to motivate “an investigation or criminal prosecution”.
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