Anthony Fauci invokes Fifth Amendment right not to answer questions at GOP-led Covid hearing, calls Rand Paul ‘unhinged’
Posted: 29 Jul 2026, 19:32
The former top health official said he was invoking the 5th Amendment to avoid the possibility that Republicans on the Senate committee might try to prosecute him for perjury.
By Monica Alba and Megan Brand
Dr. Anthony Fauci declined to answer senators’ questions at a contentious hearing Wednesday on the origins of Covid and the government’s 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’s testimony presented plenty of opportunities for Republicans and Democrats to present dueling narratives about those issues — and about the doctor himself.
Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee used their allotted time to criticize the doctor’s 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’s 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’s 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 “gain of function” 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. Fauci has previously denied the allegations.
On Tuesday, Paul responded to a reporter’s question about how he would respond to people who argue that the senator was trying to put Fauci in a position to perjure himself.
source https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congre ... rcna589793
By Monica Alba and Megan Brand
Dr. Anthony Fauci declined to answer senators’ questions at a contentious hearing Wednesday on the origins of Covid and the government’s 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’s testimony presented plenty of opportunities for Republicans and Democrats to present dueling narratives about those issues — and about the doctor himself.
Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee used their allotted time to criticize the doctor’s 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’s 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’s 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 “gain of function” 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. Fauci has previously denied the allegations.
On Tuesday, Paul responded to a reporter’s question about how he would respond to people who argue that the senator was trying to put Fauci in a position to perjure himself.
source https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congre ... rcna589793