The 85-year-old former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci, who became the public face of the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic, declined to answer questions throughout the nearly three-hour hearing on the advice of his attorneys.<\/p>\n
The hearing was led by Committee Chair Rand Paul, a longtime critic of Fauci.<\/p>\n
Ahead of the hearing, Paul released more than 1,000 pages of Fauci\u2019s private writings and diary entries, saying he intended to question him about the origins of COVID-19 and the federal government\u2019s early pandemic response.<\/p>\n
Fauci says hearing was politically motivated
\nThe proceedings quickly became heated after Fauci delivered an opening statement accusing Paul of using the hearing to pursue a political agenda.<\/p>\n
\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\u2014anything\u2014that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, \u2018behind bars,\u2019\u201d Fauci said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough it pains me to do so\u2026 under the advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Throughout the hearing, Fauci repeatedly responded to questions with the same statement.<\/p>\n
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\u201cOn the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer,\u201d he said dozens of times as Republican senators questioned him about federal funding for research in Wuhan, mask guidance, and COVID-19 vaccines.<\/p>\n
The hearing grew more contentious after Fauci\u2019s attorney, David Schertler, attempted to make a legal objection without being recognized by the committee.<\/p>\n
Rand Paul ordered Capitol Police to remove Schertler from the hearing room.<\/p>\n
Afterward, Schertler criticized the proceedings, calling them a \u201cbaseless, biased farce.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Democratic members of the committee defended Fauci, describing the hearing as a \u201cpolitical witch hunt\u201d and \u201cbackward-looking attempt to entrap a public servant.\u201d<\/p>\n
Debate erupts over Fauci\u2019s Fifth Amendment claim
\nFauci\u2019s decision to invoke the Fifth Amendment also sparked debate among lawmakers because he received a presidential pardon from former President Joe Biden before leaving office in early 2025.<\/p>\n
Republican senators argued that the pardon eliminated his ability to invoke Fifth Amendment protections regarding past federal actions.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t have any rights under the Fifth Amendment because you\u2019ve been pardoned, as you very well know,\u201d Josh Hawley said during the hearing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is about contempt\u2014contempt for this body and contempt for the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Legal experts have noted, however, that a federal pardon does not shield someone from potential state-level criminal charges or from possible perjury charges if they provide false testimony under oath.<\/p>\n
Following the hearing, Rand Paul announced that the committee plans to vote next week on whether to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer lawmakers\u2019 questions.<\/p>\n
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Dr. Anthony Fauci repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during a tense Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing on Wednesday, refusing to answer more than 100 questions from Republican … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2],"class_list":["post-2483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-trending","tag-breaking-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2483"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2484,"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2483\/revisions\/2484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}