I'm sure a court or something found that accepting a pardon was an admission of guilt.
Here is an opinion that states just that.
The orignal case was a military court martial, but the appeals to the supreme court affect all cases within its jurisdiuction.
The above was further affirmed in a later case.
This does not mean that the courts would support that reasoning today, as they cannot be tried for offences that they may have committed.
However, as can be seen in the Trump myriad of cases with Stormy Daniels, they can be tried in a civil court.
You can bet your bottom dollar that one of the many billionaire supporters of the GOP will fund a republican version of Stormy Daniels to sue Fauci, Cheney etc in a civil court in a republican state with a similar makeup of jurors to New York or DC.
I am not sure they are out of the woods yet.
The GOP was stupid enough to weaponise the impeachment articles to go after teflon Bill Clinton, and have it set the benchmark for the weaponising of the multiple impeachments against Trump.
The DEMS took it to the max by weaponising the DOJ, zEPA, IRS, DOD, CIA,FBI, FISA, and even the judicial system.
Now they will suffer the same fate, and the law suits will stretch into the years ahead.
Mick