Rand Paul had the infectious disease expert’s lawyer ejected from the committee room

Dr. Anthony Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right to refuse questions from lawmakers, during a high-profile hearing before the Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) on Wednesday.

Republicans, as they have in the past, were set to grill the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and leader of America’s Covid-19 response on a myriad of conspiratorial claims about the pandemic.

In his opening statement, Fauci, who has appeared before multiple congressional bodies in the past, told the committee that given Committee Chair Rand Paul’s “obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution,” 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, anything, that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up — in his words — ‘behind bars.’”

“Any reasonable person who has followed his unhinged obsession with me would readily come to the same conclusion,” he added. “Therefore 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 Fifth Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions.”

Throughout Paul’s questioning, Fauci repeatedly deferred to his constitutional right to refuse the senator’s questions. Before handing off the line of questioning to the committee, Paul berated Fauci and threatened him with consequences.

“The 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,” Paul said. “It’s against the law to obstruct an investigation of congress. There will be repercussions to your refusal to testify today.”

Fauci has long been a target of not just Paul, but Donald Trump and much of the Republican right, who continue to espouse theories about Covid-19 — from claims that Fauci himself funded the development of the disease to accusations that he is personally responsible for the deaths of millions and the censorship of pandemic-era disinformation about the virus.

The president has long been calling for Fauci and other Biden-era officials to be investigated or prosecuted, and revoked security details for many of his perceived political enemies upon retaking the White House.

On Wednesday morning, just before the hearing, Trump attempted to shrug off his own role in the pandemic response, writing on Truth Social that “many more people died of Covid under the Biden Administration than under the Trump Administration.”

“I Inherited Fauci, who was there since the 1980’s, but with each passing day, relied less and less on him. He made too many bad calls, like on MASKS […] In any event I didn’t let him shut the Country down, although he wanted to. I went the Federalist way, and let the governors decide. The Republican governors did a much better job than the Dumocrats,” Trump wrote. “Biden went on to give Fauci vast destructive power. The rest is history!”

In 2025, as he prepared to leave office, former President Joe Biden issued a blanket pardon to Fauci and other public officials who were in the crosshairs of the incoming Trump administration. “The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that any individual engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense,” the former president wrote. “Our nation owes these public servants a debt of gratitude for their tireless commitment to our country.”

“These are exceptional circumstances, and I cannot in good conscience do nothing,” Biden added. “Baseless and politically motivated investigations wreak havoc on the lives, safety and financial security of targeted individuals and their families.”

The pardon, so far, has protected Fauci from any abuses of the Justice Department under Trump, but it can do nothing to stop Republicans from hauling him before Congress.