Man threatens CDC director and tells FBI he’ll kill Dr. Anthony Fauci, too, feds say
A man called the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s headquarters in Atlanta and left messages threatening the agency’s director before directing threats toward Dr. Anthony Fauci, federal prosecutors said.
Robert Wiser Bates, 39, said he’d hurt and kill CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky in voicemails left for the agency in late July 2021, court documents show.
When FBI agents interviewed Bates, he told them he’d also kill Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi.
Now Bates, of Ridgeland, Mississippi, has pleaded guilty to making threats in interstate commerce, the office announced in a Dec. 19 news release. Ridgeland is about 10 miles north of Jackson.
McClatchy News contacted Bates’ attorney for comment on Dec. 20 and didn’t immediately receive a response.
Prosecutors said Bates faces a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.
Both of the public health figures he threatened, Walensky and Fauci, who is also the chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, have worked closely to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic over the past few years.
Prosecutors didn’t specify Bates’ motives for threatening Walenksy and Fauci.
More than 91 million people tested positive for COVID-19 between the start of the pandemic and July 30, 2021, the week of Bates’ calls to the CDC, McClatchy News reported. At the time, more than half the country, about 81%, lived where COVID-19 levels in their community were considered medium or high.
The news of Bates’ guilty plea comes as Fauci is set to step down from his roles by the end of this month, according to CNN. He spoke at his last White House briefing on Nov. 22.
When asked what what he wants Americans to remember about his service in public health, Fauci responded by saying “I think what I’ve accomplished in my 54 years at the NIH and my 38 years as the director of NIAID — although COVID is really, really very important, it is a fragment of the total 40 years that I’ve been doing it.”
“I’ll let other people judge the value or not of my accomplishments,” Fauci added.
He also urged those eligible to get an updated COVID-19 booster shot at the briefing.
Meanwhile, Bates’ sentencing date is scheduled for March 27, according to prosecutors.
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