Dr. Anthony Fauci, who helped lead the U.S. response through the COVID-19 pandemic, invoked the Fifth Modification amid plans to testify earlier than the Senate’s Homeland Safety and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) on Wednesday and avoided answering questions.
The committee is chaired by Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who has lengthy accused Fauci of deceiving Individuals concerning the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It pains me to take action due to the respect that I’ve for the legislative department of presidency and my a long time lengthy file of cooperating with Congress, beneath the recommendation of my attorneys, I’ll invoke my proper beneath the Fifth Modification of the Structure to chorus from answering your questions,” Fauci mentioned throughout his opening assertion.
Fauci mentioned he testified earlier than or briefed congressional committees over 200 occasions in his 38 years as director of the Nationwide Institute of Allergy and Infectious Ailments.
Dr. Anthony Fauci is sworn in throughout a Senate Homeland Safety and Governmental Affairs committee listening to on Capitol Hill in Washington, July 29, 2026.
Alex Wroblewski/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
“Given Senator Paul’s apparent obsession with calling for my prosecution, his repeated slanderous feedback about me, and lately his publicly releasing my unredacted private diary geared toward embarrassing and intimidating me, the one conclusion I can attain is that the only real cause he’s calling me earlier than this Committee is to get me to say one thing that would vindicate his repeated public pledges that I find yourself, in his phrases, ‘behind bars,'” Fauci mentioned.
Paul centered his questioning on Fauci’s private journal entries between December 2019 and December 2022, in addition to the origins of COVID-19, however Fauci declined to reply the questions.
Committee chairman Senator Rand Paul, Republican from Kentucky, questions Dr. Anthony Fauci throughout a Senate Homeland Safety and Governmental Affairs committee listening to on Capitol Hill in Washington, July 29, 2026.
Alex Wroblewski/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
Considered one of Fauci’s attorneys, David Schertler, who was sitting subsequent to him, tried to talk a number of occasions after Paul’s questioning was over, however the senator shut him down, saying the legal professional wasn’t acknowledged.
“You had been informed to not sit on the desk, you insist on sitting on the desk, and we informed you you wouldn’t be acknowledged,” Paul mentioned to the legal professional. “You aren’t invited right here for testimony, sir. You might be being disruptive. Would you behave this fashion in a courtroom? No, as a result of the choose would put you in jail. I can not try this right this moment, however I can have you ever escorted from the premises.”
After about one other minute, Paul known as for safety and Capitol Police had Schertler escorted from the room.
Former NIH Director Anthony Fauci consults along with his legal professional David Schertler as he testifies earlier than a Senate Homeland Safety and Governmental Affairs Committee listening to, July 29, 2026 in Washington.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Photographs
Republicans on the committee hammered Fauci over entries in his journal that they declare present he contradicted himself and sought private fame.
Sen. Ron Johnson, sounding incredulous, mentioned that Fauci lied to his personal diary when Fauci wrote that he was by no means proven a March 2020 re-opening plan despatched to governors by President Donald Trump.
“So I am simply merely asking you: Is that true? Did you actually misinform your personal diary? Do you know of that letter despatched to governors about reopening county by county?” Johnson mentioned.
Fauci once more declined to reply.
WASHINGTON, DC – JULY 29: Committee Chairman U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is proven on a monitor as former NIH Director Anthony Fauci (L) testifies earlier than the Senate Homeland Safety and Governmental Affairs Committee listening to on July 29, 2026 in Washington, DC. Fauci was anticipated to be questioned about his diary entries throughout his dealing with of the Covid-19 pandemic. (Photograph by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Photographs)
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Photographs
Different Republican senators, together with James Lankford of Oklahoma, requested Fauci concerning the principle that the COVID-19 virus originated in a laboratory, however the physician declined to reply questions.
Democrats on the committee defended Fauci’s proper to plead the Fifth. They used their time to sentence the listening to as a fishing expedition — and one that’s distracting the committee from extra urgent public well being considerations.
Democratic senators thanked Fauci for his years in public service and dismissed the questions posed by their Republican colleagues.
Rating member Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., decried the listening to as counterproductive, saying the assaults on Fauci would deter others from partaking within the work essential to guard from public well being crises.
“I feel right this moment’s listening to, sadly, does actual injury,” Peters mentioned. “It is tempting to show one individual into the scapegoat for a disaster that a whole lot of officers throughout each the Trump and the Biden administration had been accountable for dealing with.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., referred to the pandemic as a few of the “darkest days or occasions on our historical past” and mentioned Republicans had been making an attempt to “rebrand” Fauci as a “villain.”
“Dr. Fauci is only one a part of this bigger marketing campaign in opposition to science and details — a marketing campaign that has made Individuals much less secure,” Blumenthal mentioned. “It’s shameful that in a devoted public service like Dr. Fauci has skilled persistent threats to his life for the reason that pandemic due to the lies which are informed about him.”‘
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