{"id":218724,"date":"2026-07-29T21:55:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T21:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/anthony-fauci-invokes-fifth-amendment-right-not-to-answer-questions-at-covid-hearing-calls-sen-rand-paul-unhinged-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T21:55:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T21:55:07","slug":"anthony-fauci-invokes-fifth-amendment-right-not-to-answer-questions-at-covid-hearing-calls-sen-rand-paul-unhinged-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/anthony-fauci-invokes-fifth-amendment-right-not-to-answer-questions-at-covid-hearing-calls-sen-rand-paul-unhinged-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthony Fauci invokes Fifth Amendment right not to answer questions at Covid hearing, calls Sen. Rand Paul \u2018unhinged\u2019 – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Dr. Anthony Fauci declined to answer senators\u2019 questions at a contentious hearing Wednesday on the origins of Covid <\/a>and the government\u2019s handling of the pandemic, saying he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right to avoid the possibility that Republicans use his testimony to prosecute him for perjury.
The surprise decision set the stage for a hyper-partisan hearing that yielded no new revelations about the origins of the coronavirus or the government response to the pandemic. But the absence of Fauci\u2019s testimony presented plenty of opportunities for Republicans and Democrats to present dueling narratives about those issues \u2014 and about the doctor himself.
Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee used their allotted time to criticize the doctor\u2019s recommendations during the Covid pandemic as the former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, accusing him of providing harmful advice on issues such as lockdowns and of lacking candor on the origins of the coronavirus.
Democrats, meanwhile, came to Fauci\u2019s defense, painting the hearing as a Republican-led effort to entrap Fauci into committing perjury and using their time to focus criticism on the Trump administration\u2019s health care policies.
After Fauci had invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times, committee Chairman Rand Paul, R-Ky., said as the hearing ended that he would call for a vote to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress. He said after the hearing that the committee would vote on the issue next week.
Paul, a longtime critic of Fauci, has clashed with the doctor numerous times at past congressional hearings. Paul has accused him of lying to Congress on the issue of \u201cgain of function\u201d lab research on viruses, which makes them more dangerous in order to better understand them, and whether funding from the National Institutes of Health ultimately made its way the Wuhan Institute of Virology. <\/a>Fauci has previously denied the allegations.
On Tuesday, Paul responded to a reporter\u2019s question about how he would respond to people who argue that the senator was trying to put Fauci in a position to perjure himself.
\u201cThere\u2019s no risk to perjury if you tell the truth,\u201d Paul said. \u201cIn fact, he can even admit to not telling the truth in the past. He can admit destroying records. He can admit to, you know, not adequately presenting both sides of equations, which isn\u2019t really a crime. He can admit to anything. The only thing he can\u2019t do is lie again.\u201d
In his opening statement, Fauci said Paul\u2019s repeated attacks on him formed his rationale for deciding to invoke his 5th Amendment right. The doctor cited what he characterized as the senator\u2019s \u201cobvious obsession with calling for my prosecution, his repeated slanderous comments about me\u201d and his decision to publicly release the doctor\u2019s personal journal.
\u201cThe only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something \u2014 anything \u2014 that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words \u2014 quote \u2014 \u2018behind bars,\u2019\u201d Fauci said in his opening remarks.
\u201cAny reasonable person who has followed his unhinged obsession with me would readily come to the same conclusion,\u201d he continued. \u201cTherefore, although it pains me to do so because of the respect I have for the legislative branch of government and my decades-long record of cooperating with Congress, under the advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right under the 5th Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions.\u201d
In the final hours of his administration, former President Joe Biden <\/a>issued a pre-emptive pardon to Fauci and others<\/a> to shield them from what Biden characterized as potential political prosecutions. This week, Paul did not preclude that Fauci could face charges over his testimony, saying \u201cwe\u2019re going to find out\u201d if he should be prosecuted.
That pardon was a factor in the decision-making from Fauci\u2019s legal team in determining that the former infectious disease expert should not answer senators\u2019 questions because Republicans had consistently implied that pardon would not apply to new statements.
During the hearing, Republican senators repeatedly tried to goad Fauci into responding to their questions \u2014 with Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., at one point asking the doctor to identify the colors of his tie and the floor\u2019s carpeting.
Fauci answered each question, regardless of the topic, <\/strong>with the same line: \u201cOn the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.\u201d
At the end of his period of questioning, Paul told Fauci that he would face \u201crepercussions\u201d for not answering.
\u201cThe committee will have to consider after this hearing what appropriate action should be taken against you for the failure to testify after being directed to do so,\u201d Paul said. \u201cIt\u2019s against the law to obstruct an investigation of Congress. There will be repercussions to your refusal to testify today.\u201d
When Paul concluded, Fauci\u2019s lawyer, David Schertler, tried to say something to the senators but was repeatedly cut off by Paul, who ultimately ordered security to remove Schertler from the committee room.
Shortly after he left the hearing, Schertler told NBC News that Fauci \u201chas a valid Fifth Amendment privilege, and he has the right to assert it.\u201d
\u201cThat\u2019s what I was trying to tell the committee, and that\u2019s all I was trying to tell the committee,\u201d he said.
In a separate statement, Schertler called Paul\u2019s actions \u201coutrageous.\u201d
\u201cIt proves the baseless and vindictive nature of this proceeding and Rand Paul\u2019s personal vendetta against Dr. Fauci,\u201d he said.
During his time to speak, the top Democrat on the committee, Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., criticized the Republicans\u2019 handling of the hearing, saying he believed the hearing \u201cdoes real damage.\u201d
\u201cIt\u2019s tempting to turn one person into the scapegoat for a crisis that hundreds of officials across both the Trump and the Biden administration were responsible for handling,\u201d Peters said, adding that people were facing death threats.
\u201cThis is only going to, unfortunately, deter other scientific experts from public service to understand that this is what they would have to go through as they provide their advice to us,\u201d he added.
Separately, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told reporters ahead of his period of questioning that he would not ask Fauci questions, arguing that the \u201cshow trial is a perjury craft for criminal prosecution going forward.\u201d
During the hearing, Blumenthal defended Fauci and and compared the Republican-led proceedings to the McCarthy hearings of the 1950s.
\u201cWe should not be part of a rerun of that kind of effort,\u201d Blumenthal said. \u201cThis attempt to rebrand one of the most challenging times in our nation\u2019s history is a short-sighted act of desperation that will leave us less prepared for the next pandemic.\u201d
Schertler said in a statement that the circumstances surrounding Fauci\u2019s appearance \u201cregrettably made his continued cooperation impossible,\u201d accusing Paul of taking \u201can intense and seemingly pathological course of retribution, revenge, and obsession with Dr. Fauci\u201d that has ultimately led to the doctor and his family facing threats and harassment.
\u201cDr. Fauci devoted his lengthy career to saving millions of lives globally through scientific discovery and sound public health policy,\u201d Schertler said in the statement. \u201cThe accusations that Chairman Paul continues to propagate are false and disgraceful, and we will examine all options to hold him accountable.\u201d
Monica Alba is a White House correspondent for NBC News.
Megan Brand is a politics reporter for NBC News.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeDr. Anthony Fauci declined to answer senators\u2019 questions at a contentious hearing Wednesday on the origins of Covid and the government\u2019s handling of the pandemic, saying he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right to avoid the possibility that Republicans use his testimony to prosecute him for perjury. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":218725,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-218724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}