President Obama, left, looks introspective at his Presidential Center opening in Chicago on June 18, 2026. Bill Gates, right, looks down as he walks alongside his team on June 10, 2026 in Washington, D.C. (Taylor Hill / Getty Images ; Kent Nishimura / AFP via Getty Images)
By Paris Apodaca August 2, 2026 at 4:30am
Top security clearance was given to Bill Gates to the Department of Energy, according to letter obtained by Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul.
The billionaire Microsoft co-founder was given “Q security clearance” from 2014 to 2021, starting during the presidency of Barack Obama and completely overlapping with Dr. Anthony Fauci’s tenure as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, according to the letter from the DOE. Paul asked for unanimous consent to enter the letter into the Congressional record during Wednesday’s Senate hearing.
Department of Energy “Q” top secret clearance “typically applies to positions involving nuclear weapons design, national laboratories, critical energy infrastructure and classified scientific research,” according to the National Security Law Firm.
Clearance eligibility is up to an ongoing review, “Reapplication is possible but difficult without demonstrable changed circumstance,” National Security Law Firm’s website said.
The Department of Energy, the Gates Foundation and a spokesperson for Paul each did not immediately respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.
Fauci declined to answer a wide variety of questions during the hearing. His handling of the COVID-19 pandemic has faced scrutiny for years especially after thousands of his emails from the early stages of the outbreak became public in 2021.
Other previously reported emails showed Fauci communicating with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, an executive at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and a Chinese health official whom Fauci told that the two countries would “get through this together.”
“The blame equally should go not only to Chinese authorities, but to Anthony Fauci and all those who advocated for this,” Paul told FOX New. “Look, Bill Gates has been over there recently. Bill Gates is the largest funder of trying to find these viruses in remote caves and bring them to big cities. What happened in China is they went 8 to 10 hours south of Wuhan, 2 to 300 feet deep into a cave, found viruses and took them back to a city of 15 million.”
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
Founded by Tucker Carlson, a 25-year veteran of print and broadcast media, and Neil Patel, former chief policy adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney, The Daily Caller News Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit providing original investigative reporting from a team of professional reporters that operates for the public benefit. Photo credit: @DailyCaller on Twitter
