US Marshals protection for Dr Fauci now 'winding down' after death threat spike

Dr. Anthony Fauci enjoyed multiple years of U.S. Marshals protection, but that security is now "winding down," Fox News has learned.

A source briefed on Fauci's security informed Fox News of the incoming rollback but declined to offer details on exactly when security will end. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) requested security for Fauci in 2020, and he has been under U.S. Marshals protection since then.

U.S. Marshals kept protecting Fauci even after he left public office due to his recent testimony on Capitol Hill. They noted that he has received countless death threats in the years since the COVID-19 pandemic.

News of the wind-down comes after Republicans blasted Fauci for still having security on the taxpayers' dime. They also argued his complaints of death threats were an attempt to garner sympathy.

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Fauci testified before Congress this month. Lawmakers on the House Oversight Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic grilled him throughout the hearing, which focused on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's 6-feet distancing rule, the masking of schoolchildren and other pandemic-era restrictions. 

Fauci responded affirmatively each time when asked by Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas, whether business closures, church closures, school closures and stay-at-home orders were justified, adding that "again, this was when we were trying to stop the tsunami of deaths that were occurring early on – how long you kept them going is debatable." 

"Mask mandates for children under the age of 5? There’s scientific evidence supporting that?" the congressman asked.

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"There was no study that did masks on kids before," Fauci said. "You couldn’t do the study. You had to respond to an epidemic that was killing 4-5,000 Americans a day." 

The Republican-led subcommittee has spent over a year probing the nation’s response to the pandemic and whether U.S.-funded research in China may have played any role in how it started. Democrats opened the hearing by saying the investigation so far has found no evidence that Fauci did anything wrong, while missing an important opportunity to prepare for the next outbreak.

Fox News' Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.