Does U.S. law allow for Dr. Anthony Fauci to be extradited to Russia? No, that's not true: Lawyers who specialize in extradition told Lead Stories that there's no legal basis to send an American citizen to Russia. Plus, the United States doesn't have an extradition treaty with Russia, so the chances of it happening are "slim to none."
The implied claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X on January 22, 2025. The post's caption said:
🚨BREAKING: Trump is considering the extradition of Anthony Fauci to Russia to face 'Crimes Against Humanity' charges related to his actions during the COVID-19 era. This move is reportedly being contemplated as part of a deal to end the war in Ukraine.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu Jan 23 17:40:47 2025 UTC)
This post provided no evidence to support the implied assertion that U.S. law allows for Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and former chief medical adviser to former President Joe Biden, to be extradited to Russia.
The inspiration for the social media post appears to come from an article (archived here) published in The People's Voice on January 22, 2025, titled "Putin 'Demanding Fauci Extradition' for 'Crimes Against Humanity' as Part of Ukraine Peace Deal."
Google search
Lead Stories found nothing to support this claim. A Google News search (archived here), using the terms "Putin AND Fauci AND extradition OR extradite," yielded a handful of results. Still, none of them supported the claim's authenticity.
Extradition experts
John Parry, a professor of law at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon, told Lead Stories in a January 23, 2025, email, "There is no legal basis for extraditing a U.S. citizen to Russia." He continued:
We do not have an extradition treaty with Russia, Congress has not authorized the extradition of U.S. citizens to Russia, and the President does not have unilateral authority to extradite a U.S. citizen to another country.
The federal statutes are clear on this, and the Supreme Court [archived here] also has said that the President must have a legal basis to surrender a person to another country.
In another January 23, 2025, email, Heather Cucolo, a law professor at New York Law School, echoed Parry. She said:
Without a treaty, the US is under no obligation to comply with any extradition requests.
Russia has maintained a long-standing refusal to extradite its citizens to the US. Given that Russia's legal system has been scrutinized as routinely un-democratic, the likelihood of an American citizen being subjected to extradition is slim to none.
U.S. Code
The U.S. Code, which lists the "general and permanent laws of the United States," spells out the statutory requirements involving "Extradition" in Title 18, Chapter 209 (archived here). Section 3181 says an American citizen can't be extradited if there's not a treaty:
§3181. Scope and limitation of chapter
(a) The provisions of this chapter relating to the surrender of persons who have committed crimes in foreign countries shall continue in force only during the existence of any treaty of extradition with such foreign government.
(b) The provisions of this chapter shall be construed to permit, in the exercise of comity, the surrender of persons, other than citizens, nationals, or permanent residents of the United States, who have committed crimes of violence against nationals of the United States in foreign countries without regard to the existence of any treaty of extradition with such foreign government if the Attorney General certifies, in writing, that--
(1) evidence has been presented by the foreign government that indicates that had the offenses been committed in the United States, they would constitute crimes of violence as defined under section 16 of this title; and
(2) the offenses charged are not of a political nature.
Title 18, Chapter 209 includes a list of countries the United States has "extradition agreements" with. Russia is not one of them.
The People's Voice
The People's Voice is among the most prolific online publishers of fake news. Articles on the site often link to and extensively quote stories from other sites to give an appearance of legitimacy but the main claim in the headline and/or the first paragraph of each article is almost never supported by the sources offered. The site routinely makes up quotes from people or misrepresents scientific study results.
It originally started as YourNewsWire in 2014 and rebranded as NewsPunch in 2017. In 2023 it rebranded itself again to The People's Voice. The People's Voice/NewsPunch/YourNewsWire has published numerous fake news articles in the past, so anything that appears on the site should be taken with a large grain of salt. Its Facebook page, "The People's Voice", lost its verification checkmark, according to a 2018 report from Media Matters For America.
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Additional Lead Stories fact checks on claims related to Donald Trump and Anthony Fauci can be found here.
