Former White House Medical Advisor and former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci refused to testify at the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee's COVID-19 hearing. The 85-year-old Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and left more than 100 questions unanswered.
The hearing was held pursuant to a formal subpoena issued by the committee's Republican Chairman, Senator Rand Paul. There is a long-standing political and legal feud between Paul and Fauci.
Fauci: "The Purpose is Political Revenge"
Fauci did not answer any of the questions directed at him during the hearing. In a prepared written statement, he said he invoked the Fifth Amendment on the advice of his lawyer. "The sole reason I have been brought before this committee is to get me to say something that would justify the chairman's repeatedly stated explicit promises to see me behind bars," he said.
Fauci stated that Paul's "obsession" with prosecuting him, his "disparaging" remarks, and the publication of his personal notes showed that the real purpose of the hearing was "political revenge."
No Answer Even to Simple Questions
Tensions rose when Fauci refused to answer even simple questions from Republican Senator Josh Hawley, such as the date or the color of his tie, citing the Fifth Amendment. Meanwhile, Senator Paul ordered Fauci's lawyer, David Schertler, to be removed from the room after Schertler's requests to speak were denied.
Schertler described Paul's pursuit of Fauci as "obsessive revenge," saying the accusations were "baseless and shameful" and that they would explore all options to hold Paul accountable.
Contempt of Congress Charge Coming
Senator Rand Paul argued that Fauci could not avoid answering questions by invoking the Fifth Amendment. Paul stressed that the preemptive pardon issued by former President Joe Biden for Fauci would not protect him from consequences. He announced that the committee would vote next week to charge Fauci with "contempt of Congress."
Republicans argue that, based on an 1896 Supreme Court decision and federal law, Congress can compel witnesses to testify by granting them immunity from criminal prosecution related to their testimony. Federal law states that giving "false or fictitious" testimony to Congress is a crime punishable by imprisonment. This creates a risk for Fauci that if he lies again after the pardon, he could face prosecution.
Biden issued a preemptive pardon for Fauci on January 19, 2025, to protect him from "politically motivated prosecutions" over his role in the pandemic. The pardon does not cover any conduct or statements after its issuance date.
Democrats React to the Hearing
The committee's senior Democratic member, Senator Gary Peters, criticized the way the hearing was conducted, calling it "not impartial and one-sided." Peters assessed the hearing as "an attempt to legitimize a predetermined conclusion reached years ago."
The COVID-19 Origin Dispute
These developments are part of the dispute over the origin of the COVID-19 virus, which has killed more than 1.1 million people in the U.S. and nearly 7 million worldwide. Paul accuses Fauci of lying to Congress about the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding "gain-of-function" research at a lab in Wuhan, China, and of helping to cover up the virus's origin. Fauci maintains he told the truth and that the research in question did not meet the government's official regulatory definition.
This week, Paul released 1,141 pages of Fauci's personal notes from 2019-2022, claiming they refute the official narrative. A representative for Fauci said the notes are entirely consistent with his public statements and document his media appearances, and that Fauci has been "open-minded" about the possibility of a lab leak since 2021.
On the eve of the hearing, former President Donald Trump attacked Fauci on social media, saying "His ideas were crazy!" The same day, the Trump administration implemented a new policy banning federal funding for "gain-of-function" research that alters the genes of microorganisms to make them more contagious or dangerous.
