Dr. Anthony Fauci on Wednesday invoked the Fifth Amendment and declined to answer questions from senators in a Republican-led committee hearing about his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fauci was set to answer lawmakers' questions after being subpoenaed by Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who the AP notes has long had a fraught relationship with the now-retired infectious-disease expert and led the charge seeking that he testify, again, under oath about his role in containing the pandemic. Fauci wasted no time, notes NBC News, in pointing to Paul's "obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution, his repeated slanderous comments about me," his decision to release Fauci's personal diary, and "his unhinged obsession with me."
Fauci's decision to invoke the Fifth, at least for now, sidesteps calls for his prosecution were he to be caught lying at Wednesday's hearing, part of a yearslong campaign for his arrest spearheaded by some Republicans in Congress. But it may also further inflame partisan divides that have festered for years about the origins and handling of the pandemic. Leading up to the hearing, Paul released more than 1,000 pages of Fauci's personal diary covering the pandemic years. Pointing to some notes about early efforts at understanding how the virus emerged, Paul wrote on X that what Fauci "wrote privately and what he told the country are two different stories."
Some diary entries—including Fauci's uncertainty in the pandemic's earliest days as scientists around the world raced to understand the new virus and how best to curb it before vaccines could be created—already were reflected in a 2024 memoir and in interviews. But they have nonetheless drawn attention from people who blame Fauci for mask mandates, school closures, and other policies they believe infringed on their rights. Ahead of the hearing, President Trump wrote on social media that he stopped relying on Fauci over the course of the pandemic because he felt Fauci made bad decisions on masks, shutdowns, and other issues.
In a statement, Fauci's attorney David Schertler said Paul's accusations are "false and disgraceful, and we will examine all options to hold him accountable." Scientists scrambled to Fauci's defense ahead of the unusual hearing—the second time the longtime National Institutes of Health scientist has been back before Congress since leaving the government in 2022. In a public letter, more than 150 infectious-disease experts and other scientists wrote that "no credible evidence has been produced to support these absurd charges" and that they are "urging our elected representatives in Congress [to] stop these witch-hunts."
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