Anthony Fauci’s return to Capitol Hill quickly turned into one of the most contentious congressional hearings since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director reportedly invoked the Fifth Amendment 111 times as Republican senators questioned him about the virus, government research, pandemic policies, and record-keeping practices. While Democrats condemned the hearing as politically driven, Republicans argued the public still deserves answers to lingering questions that have fueled debate for years.
Anthony Fauci’s Senate Hearing Begins With Fifth Amendment Bombshell
The hearing opened with Anthony Fauci accusing Sen. Rand Paul of making him the target of a years-long campaign before declining to answer many of the committee’s questions by invoking the Fifth Amendment.
Fauci, 85, accused Paul of 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.”
He continued, “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.’”
Although Fauci repeatedly exercised his constitutional right to remain silent, the hearing continued for nearly four hours as lawmakers from both parties questioned him on issues surrounding the government’s pandemic response.
At the conclusion of the hearing, Paul announced plans to begin contempt of Congress proceedings, arguing Fauci had little legal reason to remain silent.
“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 said, per NY Post.
He added, “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. But I think the pardon … has given him more immunity than most people would ever get.”
The COVID Questions Fauci Refused to Answer
Much of the hearing centered not on Fauci’s testimony, but on the questions he declined to answer.
Paul repeatedly pressed him about the origins of COVID-19, U.S. funding for gain-of-function research in China, and whether the CIA had financially supported NIAID through an interagency arrangement.
The senator also questioned Fauci about communications involving former senior adviser David Morens, who has been charged with concealing and destroying federal records.
“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.
He also referenced a February 2020 email exchange, saying, “On February 2nd, 2020, you told Francis Collins, ‘Please delete this email after you read it.’”
Fauci declined to answer those questions.
Later, Sen. Ashley Moody pointed to Fauci’s personal diary, which she said contradicted his public claims that he never recommended widespread lockdowns.
Reading directly from one entry, Moody quoted, “‘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.’”
She continued, “You even said that you told the president we should shut the whole country down.”
Moody then asked, “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.”
Again, Fauci did not respond.
Tempers Explode as Senators Confront Fauci
As the hearing intensified, several Republican senators used their time to challenge Fauci over pandemic-era decisions.
Sen. Bernie Moreno recounted the story of an Ohio family arrested after attending an outdoor high school football game without masks.
“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,” Moreno said.
“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 st*pid, because they were outside.”
He added that they “were dragged out of that stadium and arrested.”
Moreno explained that the incident inspired him to run for office before confronting Fauci directly.
“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 then asked, “Here I am sitting in front of you six years later saying, who the f–k do you think you were for doing that?”
The hearing grew even more heated when Paul ordered Capitol Police to remove Fauci’s attorney, David Schertler, after repeated attempts to speak.
“I’ve said my piece,” Schertler said.
When he later asked, “Would you allow me to make a short statement?” Paul responded, “You are not recognized, sir. Security, please remove him from the room.”
Prize Money Claims and Research Funding Draw More Scrutiny
The final stretch of the hearing focused on allegations involving government resources and federally funded research.
Sen. Josh Hawley accused Fauci of using taxpayer-funded employees to help secure personal cash awards.
“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 alleged.
He continued, “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 then asked, “In fact, you use eight separate federal employees, on federal time, using federal resources, to solicit cash awards. Isn’t that true?”
Fauci again invoked the Fifth Amendment.
Sen. Joni Ernst turned to federally funded Coronavirus research involving fetal tissue.
“NIH-funded coronavirus researcher Dr. Ralph Baric and his colleagues at UNC put parts of livers, thymus and chunks of human fetal lung that they got from aborted, almost five-month-old human babies,” Ernst said.
“They put those parts in their research mice. They disgustingly named them ‘BLT-L’ mice, and wrote they had created a ‘sandwich of aborted body parts in the mice.’”
She added, “Get it folks? BLT, a BLT sandwich.”
Ernst concluded by asking, “Thankfully, the current NIH director has said no more of this. Dr. Fauci, yes or no? Do you think that human aborted parts should be put into mice for coronavirus research?”
Instead of providing the answers Republicans sought, Fauci repeatedly relied on the Fifth Amendment throughout the hearing. His refusal to address questions ranging from COVID-19’s origins and research funding to lockdown recommendations and federal record-keeping ensured the hearing ended with many of its biggest controversies still unresolved, while setting up another showdown as Paul prepares to pursue contempt proceedings.
