Fauci invokes 5th Amendment during Senate testimony, refrains from answering lawmakers’ questions

(WASHINGTON) -- Dr. Anthony Fauci, who helped lead the U.S. response during the COVID-19 pandemic, invoked the Fifth Amendment amid plans to testify before the Senate's Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) on Wednesday and refrained from answering questions.

The committee is chaired by Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who has long accused Fauci of deceiving Americans about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"It pains me to do so because of the respect that 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 Fifth Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions," Fauci said during his opening statement.

Fauci said he testified before or briefed congressional committees over 200 times in his 38 years as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

"Given Senator Paul's obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution, his repeated slanderous comments about me, and recently his publicly releasing my unredacted personal diary aimed at embarrassing and intimidating me, 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 that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, 'behind bars,'" Fauci said.

Paul focused his questioning on Fauci's personal journal entries between December 2019 and December 2022, as well as the origins of COVID-19, but Fauci declined to answer the questions.

One of Fauci's attorneys, David Schertler, who was sitting next to him, attempted to speak several times after Paul's questioning was over, but the senator shut him down, saying the attorney wasn't recognized.

"You were told not to sit at the table, you insist on sitting at the table, and we told you you would not be recognized," Paul said to the attorney. "You are not invited here for testimony, sir. You are being disruptive. Would you behave this way in a courtroom? No, because the judge would put you in jail. I can't do that today, but I can have you escorted from the premises."

After about another minute, Paul called for security and Capitol Police had Schertler escorted from the room.

Republicans on the committee hammered Fauci over entries in his journal that they claim show he contradicted himself and sought personal fame. 

Sen. Ron Johnson, sounding incredulous, said that Fauci lied to his own diary when Fauci wrote that he was never shown a March 2020 re-opening plan sent to governors by President Donald Trump. 

"So I'm just simply asking you: Is that true? Did you literally lie to your own diary? Did you know of that letter sent to governors about reopening county by county?" Johnson said.

Fauci again declined to respond. 

Other Republican senators, including James Lankford of Oklahoma, asked Fauci about the theory that the COVID-19 virus originated in a laboratory, but the doctor declined to answer questions.

Democrats on the committee defended Fauci's right to plead the Fifth. They used their time to condemn the hearing as a fishing expedition -- and one that is distracting the committee from more pressing public health concerns.

Democratic senators thanked Fauci for his years in public service and dismissed the questions posed by their Republican colleagues.

Ranking member Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., decried the hearing as counterproductive, saying the attacks on Fauci would deter others from engaging in the work necessary to protect from public health crises. 

"I think today's hearing, unfortunately, does real damage," Peters said. "It's 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."

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., referred to the pandemic as some of the "darkest days or times on our history" and said Republicans were attempting to "rebrand" Fauci as a "villain."

"Dr. Fauci is just one part of this larger campaign against science and facts -- a campaign that has made Americans less safe," Blumenthal said. "It is shameful that in a dedicated public service like Dr. Fauci has experienced persistent threats to his life since the pandemic because of the lies that are told about him."'

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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