Rand Paul Becomes a Pawn in Fort Knox Gold Audit Debate

Mike Maharrey

Sen. Rand Paul has become Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's pawn.

A few weeks ago, Bessent insisted all the gold is in the vaults at Fort Knox.

"I haven't. People on my staff have. The treasurer has been to Fort Knox, and I'm happy to say all gold is present and accounted for."

This past Monday, Paul spent one or two hours inside the Fort Knox gold depository and boldly proclaimed, "Yes, the gold is there, all (approximately) 147 million ounces. It is impressive."

With all due respect, Sen. Paul, it is absolutely impossible for you to make that statement after wandering around inside a vault for a few hours.

The debate over Fort Knox has drawn renewed public attention in 2025, fueled in part by Elon Musk publicly questioning whether the gold reserves have been independently verified. With gold trading near record highs above $2,900 per ounce, the holdings at Fort Knox alone represent over $400 billion in market value — a figure that underscores the stakes of any audit dispute.

U.S. gold reserves are reported to be 8,133.5 metric tons (tonnes). That's roughly 261.5 million troy ounces. A little over half of that — 147.3 million ounces according to the U.S. Mint — is stored at Fort Knox. The remainder is distributed among the Denver Mint, the West Point Bullion Depository, and the Federal Reserve vault in New York. The U.S. holds the largest sovereign gold reserve in the world, ahead of Germany, Italy, and France.

Standard gold bars for reserve purposes typically weigh 400 ounces, meaning there are over 300,000 bars in Fort Knox vaults. The actual number is likely higher because much of the gold held by the U.S. was formed by melting down coins in the 1930s that were not pure gold. These non-standard bars have irregular weights and do not qualify for international settlements, primarily due to lack of purity. According to documents released during a 2011 House Committee on Financial Services Hearing, only about 17 percent of the gold bars held by the U.S. government at Fort Knox meet modern-day purity standards.

So we are expected to believe that Paul spent a couple of hours inside the depository and can emphatically claim all the gold is there.

Between Bessent's statements last month and Paul's tour, it appears there is a concerted effort to quiet calls for a legitimate audit of U.S. gold reserves. And who better to calm those voices than Rand Paul, whose constituency includes some of the most vocal supporters of sound money?

Money Metals CEO Stefan Gleason put it bluntly:

"Sen. Paul has been rolled. All it took was giving him a fun chance to go into the mysterious facility."

In a post on X, Gleason noted that Money Metals operates a precious metals depository twice the physical size of the Fort Knox facility.

"We are especially APPALLED that a giddy Sen. Rand Paul would implicitly make a mockery of proper auditing practices and whitewash decades of U.S. government mismanagement here, presumably as a 'thanks' to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent who granted him this fun field trip today. No way in hell Sen. Paul can or should suggest America's gold is fully accounted for based on a half-day visit. Even more importantly, is it encumbered? And is it okay that 83 percent of it is unacceptable on global markets due to lack of purity? What a shame."

Ironically, Paul co-sponsored the Gold Reserve Transparency Act of 2025 alongside Sen. Mike Lee, a bill that would have produced a comprehensive audit of U.S. gold reserves.

Sound Money Defense League Director Jp Cortez said the tour and Paul's subsequent insistence that the gold is all there raises serious questions:

"You co-sponsored a good bill that would have actually produced a full audit and accounting of America's gold. Instead of pursuing that, you decided to go with a field trip to Fort Knox and a 'trust me, I swear it's all there,' after a few hours? Why would you do that?"

We Need a Real Audit

Politics is politics, and the reasons behind Paul's statement may be manifold. But this publicity stunt should not distract from the need for a legitimate audit.

A proper audit involves far more than a guided tour. Every bar would be counted and inspected by an outside entity. Serial numbers would be matched to records. The gold would be assayed to verify weight and purity. And the details of the audit would be published and available for public inspection.

None of that has ever happened.

Audits also include confirming chain of custody. There is no way to know whether the Fort Knox gold is encumbered — whether it was loaned to other entities, mobilized in currency interventions, pledged, leased, or swapped. Whether other parties have full or partial claims on the gold in the vaults remains unknown because there is no published audit to examine.

In another post on X, Paul did not even get the total gold reserves correct, claiming the U.S. owned 477 million ounces — almost double the actual amount.

History of So-Called Audits

The federal government has taken actions it described as audits. In 1974, the government organized what amounted to a publicity stunt: the U.S. Treasury opened just one of its 15 Fort Knox vault compartments to politicians and reporters to view the gold and confirm its existence — not unlike the tour Rand Paul just took.

Following the 1974 event, the U.S. Treasury says it conducted a multi-year process of opening and inventorying vault compartments and affixing new tamper-evident seals to each compartment door upon completion.

These so-called audits failed to meet basic transparency or accounting standards. Some reports have since gone missing, and there is no record of comprehensive assaying, weighing, or transactional history available to the public. Furthermore, there is evidence that seals on vault compartments have been broken over the years, bars have been moved for unknown reasons, and seals have been re-affixed without fresh auditing. Subsequent annual reviews of compartment seal schedules simply whitewash prior discrepancies.

In sum, the U.S. Treasury's management of U.S. gold reserves is replete with audit deficiencies that would never pass muster at a responsibly run private depository. In fact, opening a vault for Rand Paul to inspect should itself trigger an audit.

The $6 Billion Question

Why won't they just audit the gold? Why is there such persistent refusal to even entertain the idea? Those who suggest an audit is needed are ridiculed.

The question carries added weight as central banks worldwide have been purchasing gold at record pace in recent years, with countries including China, Russia, and India accelerating accumulation amid geopolitical tensions and efforts to diversify reserves away from the dollar. That trend has only sharpened scrutiny of the U.S. reserves that underpin confidence in the nation's financial system.

If a private business refused to audit its books, it would get shut down. But Uncle Sam plays by different rules.

If there is nothing to hide, why wouldn't the government want gold holdings verified? What is the harm in an audit? Audits are considered necessary in virtually every other business setting.

Money Metals Depository is larger than the U.S. Bullion Depository, and its team is familiar with proper auditing practices. A responsibly run depository would welcome a public audit, if only to calm public concerns and demonstrate that everything is in order.

Are we going to take Bessent's and Paul's word for it? Or is somebody finally going to step up and do the right thing?

Source: GoldSeek

About the author: Mike Maharrey