Republican AGs working together to investigate Fauci explain how states can possibly bypass Biden pardon

Pardons only cover federal crimes. That's the whole legal hook here, and it's worth sitting with for a second. Biden's blanket pardon for Fauci was written broadly enough to make people assume the matter was closed, case shut, nothing to see. Turns out a preemptive federal pardon doesn't erase potential state-level exposure, and three Republican AGs just decided to test that theory in public.

Whatever you think of the underlying Fauci questions, the legal maneuver itself is interesting. Florida, Louisiana, and West Virginia teaming up isn't just symbolic solidarity, it's a way to pool resources and build a record that's harder to wave away as one state's grudge. If there's evidence of misrepresentation to state agencies, misuse of state funds, or violations of state public health law, a federal pardon was never going to touch that. It only ever protected against federal prosecution, which is a much narrower shield than the political messaging around it implied.

None of this guarantees charges materialize. Investigations are investigations, not verdicts, and these AGs know that better than anyone launching a probe with cameras rolling. But the fact that a pardon issued to close the book so cleanly might not actually close it says something about how these things get rushed out the door. If the goal was finality, a broadly worded pardon signed in a hurry was a strange way to get there.

What happens next matters more than the announcement. Subpoenas, document requests, maybe depositions, that's the slow unglamorous work that either produces something real or fizzles out. We'd rather see it play out through actual legal process than through another round of cable news shouting matches. If the states have something, let the process show it.