Quiet Skies: TSA Under President Biden Surveilled For Political Speech, Criticism; More Covid Coverup: Dr. Fauci Deleted Official Records, Testimony Demanded: Senator Paul

Quiet Skies: TSA Under President Biden Surveilled For Political Speech, Criticism; More Covid Coverup: Dr. Fauci Deleted Official Records, Testimony Demanded: Senator Paul

Editor’s note: We recently covered the senator’s bill to unleash the free market in automotive manufacturing, energy production, and the agricultural sector by removing regulations and government barriers to success.  He delivered a keynote address on fiscal responsibility in government, along with his statement that NSA employees should not be allowed to unionize.  He was also recently asking SCOTUS to restore accountability in government by tightening legal precedent regarding wrong-house raids by police officers, which are not as uncommon as people believe. Senator Paul also introduced a bill to reduce or eliminate gain-of-function research, along with other types of scientific inquiry where the benefit does not outweigh the risk, especially when considering the possibility of such data passing into the wrong hands.  And Staten Island’s Rep,. Malliotakis is part of a committee uncovering the paper trail and as much evidence as they can find to determine the origins of Covid-19.  They concluded that Dr. Fauci had not been honest in his testimony under oath before Congress, and that there was ample evidence to connect Covid-19 with a research lab performing dangerous experiments.  

Chairman Rand Paul Uncovers New Evidence of Fauci Deleting Official Records, Calls Him to Testify Before HSGAC

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC), has formally called for Dr. Anthony Fauci to testify before the Committee. Recently uncovered emails directly contradict Dr. Fauci’s repeated denials before the House Oversight Committee in 2024, when he testified under oath that he had never deleted federal records or sought to obstruct the release of public documents.

The Committee’s letter to Dr. Fauci, sent September 9, 2025, requests the full production of all emails, messages, and call records from 2018–2023 related to the origins of COVID-19, gain-of-function research, EcoHealth Alliance, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and other key actors. The letter also formally requests that Dr. Fauci testify before HSGAC this fall to clarify his previous testimony and address the growing body of evidence suggesting that he sought to conceal records from congressional investigators.

Dr. Rand Paul said in the letter, “During the course of its investigation, the Committee has obtained records revealing that you directed employees of the National Institutes for Health (NIH) to destroy federal records. These documents suggest your direct involvement in efforts to conceal information related to the Committee’s investigation and appear to contradict your previous testimony before Congress. Accordingly, I request that you provide additional information and formally invite you to appear before the Committee to clarify your previous testimony.”

In one February 2, 2020, email—just one day after the now-infamous “Proximal Origins” call— a conversation between Jeremy Farrar, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and Francis Collins shows their intent to “get ahead of the science and narrative of” the origins of COVID-19. Later, Dr. Fauci instructed then-NIH Director Francis Collins: “Please delete this e-mail after you read it.”

In another email, dated July 20, 2020,  Dr. Fauci displayed a blatant disregard for congressional oversight, remarking “As usual [Rand Paul]’s full of s..t” and wrote to his Chief of Staff: “please delete this e-mail after you read it.”

“Dr. Fauci misled Congress and the American people. The evidence is clear: while publicly posturing as a champion of science, he was privately directing his staff to destroy federal records,” said Dr. Paul. “This is a blatant violation, a betrayal of the public trust, and further proof that Fauci engaged in a coverup from the very beginning of the pandemic.”

Chairman Paul Brings to Light Biden’s Quiet Skies Weaponization, Releases Damning Documents into the Record

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Chairman Rand Paul (R-KY) of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, convened a hearing to examine the Biden administration’s abuse of the TSA’s Quiet Skies Program and entered newly obtained documents into the record.

The hearing followed an investigation Chairman Paul launched in 2024 and a report released yesterday detailing his findings, which revealed how the Quiet Skies Program and related watch lists were weaponized into political surveillance tools used against veterans, sitting lawmakers, political opponents, and even the family of a Federal Air Marshal.

The Committee heard testimony from Mark Crowder, a Senior Federal Air Marshal with the U.S. Transportation Security Administration and whistleblower whose wife was placed on a watch list in a case of mistaken identity; the Honorable Tristan Leavitt, President of Empower Oversight; Matt Taibbi, Editor of Racket News; Jim Harper, Senior Nonresident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute; and Abed Ayoub, National Executive Director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

“I commend Secretary Noem for ending Quiet Skies, but our work is not done. We must make sure that this program does not come back under another name. Every official who directed or approved surveillance of Americans for protected speech must be removed from office. Full transparency must become the rule rather than requiring a year of investigation,” said Chairman Paul. “The result will be a process that respects the Constitution, ends real life shadow bans against Americans and gives all of us the assurance that our government is focused on protecting us, not on chasing political ghosts.”

“The Quiet Skies Program has been used for nearly two decades to target and surveil everyday Americans, violating our constitutional rights and civil liberties, targeting political opponents, and costing taxpayers approximately $200 million per year, all while failing to stop a single terrorist,” said DNI Gabbard. “ODNI has worked closely with DHS and Sen. Paul to expose the truth behind this program, putting an end to weaponization against Americans.”

Watch Senator Rand Paul’s opening remarks on Rumble

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Opening remarks as delivered below:

In mid-2024, as she grew increasingly critical of the Biden administration and increasingly involved with the Trump campaign, Tulsi Gabbard noticed changes as she went to the airport, she had more screening federal agents with dogs showing up for her flights. Other federal agents followed her on the plane and reported back on her activity.

When I learned of this, I launched an investigation into the TSA’s Quiet Skies Program and the Biden administration’s weaponization of watch list against everyday Americans

Under public scrutiny, the Biden administration removed now Director of National Intelligence Gabbard from the program, but they spent the remainder of their time in office stonewalling any investigation. 

Thankfully, that era is over. President Trump, himself a victim of government weaponization, set out to reverse the previous administration’s targeting of the very citizens it has sworn to protect.

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem has taken decisive action to eliminate bureaucratic obstacles resisting transparency. We are finally getting answers, and now we know exactly why the previous administration fought so hard to keep us in the dark.

Director Gabbard was surveilled on at least five domestic flights by Federal Air Marshals under Quiet Skies. Internal records for her targeting show her congressional portrait and that she was a former congresswoman from Hawaii. 

So, there was no doubt they knew who they were monitoring.

Multiple concerns were raised internally, and one air marshal asked a colleague, why the heck is she a Quiet Skies suspect? If this can happen to a combat veteran, a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, and now Director of National Intelligence, it can happen to anyone. And it did.

Today, for the first time, you will hear directly from a Federal Air Marshal whose wife was labeled a domestic terrorist simply for engaging in protected First Amendment activity. Records show the FBI labeled her as a domestic terrorist for unlawful entry into the Capitol on January 6th.

But she didn’t enter the Capitol. She came for a public, support of the President, and they knew it. Her phone location data did not put her inside the Capitol. Facial recognition did not identify her inside. She had no criminal record and no history of extremist views.

What they did know is that this Catholic schoolteacher from Texas supported President Trump and went to Washington to attend his rally at the Ellipse. That was not enough for the government. That was not enough to label her a suspected domestic terrorist for two years.

Her family was surveilled when they flew. This was not an isolated case. It happened to hundreds of Americans. It happened because the TSA used First Amendment protected activity as a predicate for watch listing Americans. That’s unconstitutional, of course. First Amendment activity cannot be the sole basis for watch listing someone, but sole basis is an important caveat and it’s an opening the TSA exploited.

Today we will release internal TSA records that reveal how the agency authorized First Amendment activity to be used to justify the surveillance of Americans with no evidence and no recourse.

Using broad and vague authorities, TSA deemed hundreds of Americans as threats to national security simply for holding opposing political views. The federal government used its investigative authorities, anonymous tips and university research institutions to build a flimsy case to put them on the watch list.

They didn’t just coincidentally watch list hundreds of people who attended the same Trump rally. They did it intentionally and obscured the process to create plausible deniability. For example, documents obtained in my investigation reveal that TSA relied on data collected by the George Washington University Project on Extremism.

Consider this first, DHS funds the Project on Extremism. An external partner not bound by the same laws and regulations as federal agencies. Then, the Project on Extremism identifies supposed domestic threats by meticulously tracking January 6th defendants. DHS then uses the Project on Extremism reporting as evidence, sometimes the only evidence for putting someone on a watch list.

But the abuses weren’t limited to January 6th. The TSA also viewed skeptics of COVID mandates as threats.

Simply removing a mask on an aircraft got 12 Americans watch listed. Records also show three current members of Congress, all Republicans, were included in the companion Silent Partner Program either as a sitting member or while seeking elected office.

A cursory review would have revealed them to be either a member of Congress or decorated active or former US Military members. And in fact, they were surveilled, likely for activities that were official duties during their time in the military or in Congress.

All of this was wrong, and I’m glad that these abuses are beginning to be exposed.

I commend Secretary Noem for ending Quiet Skies, but our work is not done. We must make sure that this program does not come back under another name.

Every official who directed or approved surveillance of Americans for protected speech must be removed from office.

Full transparency must become the rule rather than requiring a year of investigation. The result will be a process that respects the Constitution, ends real life shadow bans against Americans, and gives all of us the assurance that our government is focused on protecting us, not on chasing political ghosts.

Prior to the above hearing, Senator Paul released the following:

 Flash Report: Biden’s TSA Targeted Veterans, Lawmakers, and Air Marshal’s Wife

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Chairman Rand Paul (R-KY) of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee opened an investigation into TSA’s Quiet Skies program in 2024 after reports it was weaponized against Americans. Today, Dr. Paul released a flash report of his findings, exposing how TSA’s Quiet Skies program, and related watch lists, were twisted into political surveillance tools under the Biden administration.

The release comes ahead of the hearing, Examining the Weaponization of the Quiet Skies Program. A Whistleblower, a Federal Air Marshal first mentioned in Senator Paul’s recent op-ed in The American Conservative, will testify before the Committee.

The report reveals Tulsi Gabbard, a combat veteran and former congresswoman, now serving as Director of National Intelligence, was surveilled on at least five flights in 2024.This surveillance began only one day after she publicly criticized Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

Three Republican lawmakers were matched to TSA’s Silent Partner and/or Quiet Skies Rules right after engaging in some kind of political activity, including opposing the Biden administration. At least two dozen Americans were placed on watch lists for protesting mask mandates or removing a mask on an aircraft. Following January 6, 2021, TSA issued a directive authorizing the watch listing of individuals based solely on suspected travel to Washington, D.C., without any specific evidence of unlawful conduct.

The most shocking revelation is that the wife of a Federal Air Marshal was branded a domestic terrorist and subjected to invasive monitoring, even though no evidence ever linked her to unlawful activity on January 6, 2021. She was placed in the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Database and, for two years, followed on domestic flights by Federal Air Marshals, who reported her movements and interactions, sometimes on a minute-by-minute basis. Her name was finally cleared only after the FBI closed its case due to mistaken identity.

“Quiet Skies was an unconstitutional dystopian nightmare masquerading as a security tool costing the American taxpayers $200 million a year. And what did we get for it? According to DHS, the Quiet Skies program failed to stop a single terrorist attack since it was created. Instead, taxpayers are footing the bill for a surveillance program that turned its watchful eye inward—targeting Americans who had committed no crimes, violated no laws, and in many cases were government officials themselves,” said Dr. Paul. 

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