What To Know Fauci responded to the preemptive pardon in a statement reported by CNN's Jim Acosta. "It feels good and I'm grateful to the president for doing it," he told Acosta. "I have done nothing wrong. Certainly nothing criminal. No grounds at all." Fauci said the White House told him in December that Biden was considering a preemptive pardon, but that he did not know it was actually happening "until last night," Acosta posted on X, formerly Twitter. Newsweek reached out to Fauci via Georgetown University for comment