Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former head of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, stunned Republican senators on Wednesday when he refused to answer their questions about the COVID-19 pandemic by invoking his Fifth Amendment right at the start of a congressional hearing.
Unlike other instances of witnesses taking the Fifth, however, that wasn’t the end of the proceeding, as GOP and Democratic members of the Senate Homeland Security Committee continued quizzing Fauci for under four hours.
Republicans, led by Chairman Rand Paul (R-Ky.), demanded answers on the origins of the pandemic, inconsistencies related to his public remarks on COVID mandates versus his private comments and his support for funding for risky “gain of function” research abroad that can make viruses more infectious.
AP Photo/Allison Robbert
Democrats used their time on the dais to reflect on the “biased” nature of the proceedings, with Ranking Member Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and others calling out Paul for excluding them from preparations for the hearing and other investigative work by the committee’s majority.
At its conclusion, Paul announced that his committee would begin contempt of Congress proceedings against Fauci next week and questioned the validity of the sweeping pardon former President Joe Biden granted his former White House COVID czar in January 2025.
“Dr. Fauci isn’t liable for anything as long as he tells the truth, even if he admits that he destroyed records on a routine basis,” Paul suggested, adding that the ex-NIAID official “can’t be prosecuted for many of the things that are outside the statute of limitations as well.”
“All he had to do today if he wanted to testify was to be honest. As long as he was honest, even about committing a crime, he would have no jeopardy,” Paul added. “But I think the pardon … has given him more immunity than most people would ever get.”
Fauci, in his opening statement before pleading the Fifth, had excoriated Paul for having an “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,” he concluded, “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.’”
Here are the five most shocking moments that occurred during Fauci’s appearance:
1. Fauci took the Fifth Amendment 111 times — including on CIA funding of his agency
Fauci took the Fifth at least 111 times to questions that would have teased out critical information about the origins of the COVID pandemic and US funding for gain-of-function research in China.
In another startling example, Paul asked Fauci whether the CIA had ever funded NIAID — before the chairman revealed later in the hearing that he had obtained documents describing the interagency spending agreement.
Similarly, Fauci dodged questions about his since-indicted, ex-senior adviser David Morens, who pleaded not guilty in May to concealing and destroying federal records — and whether he engaged in evasive record-keeping patterns by using a personal cell phone and email address to hide information.
“Our investigation reveals your assistant diligently reported that she deleted tons of emails in 2024. You testified that you did not delete federal records. Who’s telling the truth?” Paul asked at one point.
“On February 2nd, 2020,” he added, citing an email exchange, “you told Francis Collins, ‘Please delete this email after you read it.’”
2. Paul ejected Fauci’s attorney from the hearing room
Paul had US Capitol Police escort Fauci’s attorney, David Schertler, out of the hearing room following a tense exchange a little more than a half-hour into questioning.
It’s unclear if Schertler intended to read from a letter he sent to Paul last month, which was referenced later in the hearing by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) — but he repeatedly tried to interject only to be shouted down by the chairman.
“I’ve said my piece,” Schertler told Paul. The attorney’s letter noted many public statements by Paul threatening to jail Fauci.
Paul lashed out: “This is the way Anthony Fauci wants to be remembered: For a lawyer not listening to the rules. That’s the way you want to be remembered, and that’s what you’re going to do.”
“Would you allow me to make a short statement?” Schertler asked in response.
“You are not recognized, sir,” Paul said. “Security, please remove him from the room.”
Schertler, a prominent defense attorney, has previously represented Joe Biden’s doctor and ex-Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ).
3. Republicans unloaded on Fauci for pandemic failures: ‘Who the f–k do you think you were?’
Several Senate Republicans on the Homeland Security panel used their questioning time to tear into Fauci for pandemic policies that harmed Americans, closed in-person schooling — or in some cases led to their arrest.
“There was a mom in Ohio during the depth of the coronavirus pandemic, decided to go to our high school football game for her son. They hadn’t been out much,” Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) recounted. “They sat alone, far from everybody else — just a mom, a dad, a few kids. They didn’t feel they needed to wear masks because it was stupid, because they were outside.”
“They were dragged out of that stadium and arrested,” Moreno fumed.
“When that story broke, I said to myself, I cannot stand idly on the side and watch this happen. It was about six years ago today that I decided I’m going to give up my businesses, sell them all, run for office, run for the United States Senate,” he added. “Here I am sitting in front of you six years later saying, who the f–k do you think you were for doing that?”
Sen. Ashley Moody (R-Fla.) also drew attention to passages from Fauci’s newly released NIAID diaries, which he acknowledged were authentic in his opening statement, that showed the public health official knew he had pushed for lockdowns — despite publicly denying he did.
“‘I spoke with Bill de Blasio, the mayor of NYC, and convinced him, based on what I was saying publicly and my conversation tonight to close the NYC schools, he had already decided, based on what I was saying on TV. I went on to tell him he should close the bars and restaurants in NYC, and he said he would do this based on my recommendation,’” Moody quoted from the diary entry.
“You even said that you told the president we should shut the whole country down,” she added. “Dr. Fauci, how do you square telling the American people publicly that you didn’t recommend locking anything down with your own diary entry, kept on federal government equipment, saying that your recommendation is what convinced the mayor and the president to lock things down.”
4. Fauci enlisted his staff to solicit millions of dollars in prize money
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) accused Fauci of illegally using his staff to solicit prize money while serving as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
“You were using federal employees, with taxpayer money, to apply for and solicit cash prizes for you personally — cash prizes totaling over $1 million,” Hawley scolded Fauci.
“Besides the Dan David Award, you’ve got the Partnership for Public Service, you’ve got the Adelson Prize, you’ve got the Smithsonian Award, you’ve got the National Academy of Medicine’s award, you got the CDC Foundation,” Hawley added.
