Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., has accused career bureaucrats within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) of actively hindering his investigation and other efforts to obtain pandemic-era information, particularly from Dr. Anthony Fauci's former government-issued iPhone.
Johnson, who leads the Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, stated that long-serving HHS employees are creating obstacles for his probe and for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s own pursuit of transparency. "Bobby Kennedy has people in those agencies sabotaging his efforts at radical transparency," Johnson told Fox News Digital. "So this is like pulling teeth."
The senator's subcommittee recently received Fauci's personal work phone, which contained over 34,000 text messages and 522 voicemails. The first batch of released text messages, exchanged between Fauci and former CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky and Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, revealed Fauci's concerns about potential links between mRNA vaccines and miscarriages in the first trimester of pregnancy.
Johnson characterized this revelation as just the "tip of the iceberg," emphasizing that releasing the initial texts was a matter of public health and safety, impacting informed consent. He suggested that the information on the phone could expose broader issues with how HHS handled the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I mean, fortunately, now we have Bobby Kennedy, I think gaining a little bit more control over the agency," Johnson said. "Remember, most of the people serving in these agencies have been there a long time, and they were involved in the cover-up. They were supposed to be surveilling for vaccine injuries and they weren’t."
Johnson also noted that the phones had been "locked away somewhere" and that he was unaware they had been issued by the government. HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News.