After the pardons were announced, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky — both Republicans — posted to X claiming that issuing pardons to Fauci, Milley and others implied they were guilty of a crime, as did other right-leaning accounts on the platform.

President Biden noted that the "should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that any individual engaged in any wrongdoing."

Dr. Anthony Fauci helped coordinate the nation’s response to the COVID pandemic. He has never been charged with a crime, yet received a “full and unconditional” pardon back to Jan. 1, 2014.