The committee chairman, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, has long disputed Fauci’s explanations about where the virus began and how the government responded to it.
Watch Sen. Paul and Dr. Fauci’s COVID-19 clashes
A mashup of the verbal showdowns between Dr. Anthony Fauci and Senator Rand Paul.
USA TODAY
WASHINGTON – Anthony Fauci, a chief architect of the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic, refused to answer Senate questions July 29 about his role during that era, invoking his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination as lawmakers threatened him with criminal prosecution.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, accused Fauci of lying to Congress about the potential that the virus originated from a Chinese lab and the government’s response to the pandemic.
But Fauci told the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee he was invoking his rights because Paul had an “obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution.”
“The only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something – anything – that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, ‘behind bars,'” Fauci said. “Any reasonable person who has followed his unhinged obsession with me would readily come to the same conclusion.”
Before he left office in 2025, former President Joe Biden pardoned Fauci for his actions dating to 2014. But Fauci is still vulnerable to charges since that pardon, potentially from perjury if lawmakers at some point argue he lied while testifying.
Paul said Fauci could be investigated for potential charges despite his refusal to answer questions.
“It’s against the law to obstruct an investigation of Congress,” Paul said. “There will be repercussions.”
Republicans spent hours peppering Fauci with questions about whether COVID-19 originated in a lab, whether he destroyed documents about the government’s response to the pandemic and whether other treatments could have worked as well. Fauci steadfastly refused to answer.
“On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution,” Fauci said.
Democratic senators said the hearing was meant to “entrap” Fauci and rewrite history.
“It must be enormously frustrating to know that this hearing is designed to entrap you,” said Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-New Hampshire.