Why Fauci invoked the 5th Amendment nearly 100 times in Sen. Rand Paul's latest COVID hearing

Dr. Anthony Fauci appeared on Capitol Hill on Wednesday before a Senate committee led by Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky investigating the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who helped lead the country's pandemic response, invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refused to answer any questions at the hearing, which came days after Paul released more than 1,100 pages of his COVID-era diary.

"Given Senator Paul's 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 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,'" Fauci said in his opening remarks. 

"Any reasonable person who has followed his unhinged obsession with me would readily come to the same conclusion," Fauci continued. "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."

Paul, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, pressed on, but Fauci would not budge, refusing to answer his questions — or anyone else's — more than 100 times during the three-hour hearing.

"On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer, based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution," Fauci said in response to each question. 

At one point, Paul ordered David Schertler, one of Fauci's attorneys, to be removed from the room. "Let the record state that Dr. Fauci will still have the advice of the other half a dozen attorneys that he brought along today," the senator said.

What's behind the Paul-Fauci feud?

For years, Paul has accused Fauci of deceiving Americans about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fauci has said SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, most likely spread from animals to humans, which is largely the consensus of the scientific community. 

Paul has promoted the idea that the virus originated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a Chinese government lab, and has alleged that Fauci tried to cover up evidence supporting the "lab leak" theory.

Fauci frequently appeared before Congress while helping lead the nation's response to the pandemic.

During one particularly contentious hearing in 2021, Paul accused Fauci of lying to Congress about U.S. government funding of the Wuhan lab.

"I have not lied before the Congress," Fauci said. "Senator Paul, you do not know what you are talking about, quite frankly. And I want to say that officially."

"You're dancing around this because you're trying to obscure responsibility for 4 million people dying around them from a pandemic," Paul said.

"I totally resent the lie that you are now propagating, senator," Fauci replied. 

"You are obviously obfuscating the truth," Paul interjected, to which Fauci replied: "I'm not obfuscating the truth — you are."

Fauci, 85, retired in 2022 after more than 38 years as NIAID director.

During a House hearing in 2024, Fauci testified that he and his family continued to receive death threats amid "disinformation" spread by Paul and others, requiring him to have round-the-clock security.

"Every time someone gets up and says I'm responsible for the death of people throughout the world, the threats go up," Fauci said.

What was in Fauci's diary? And how did Paul get it?

Ahead of the hearing, Paul posted more than 1,100 pages of Fauci's typewritten journal entries from December 2019 to December 2022, and a 465-page "prequel" that included emails and other documents dating back to 2001.

It's unclear how Paul obtained what he refers to as "Tony's Diary." In an appearance on Fox News, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said his office turned over the material, which "took eight months to dig out of 11 separate servers."

In the diary, Fauci chronicles his thoughts on becoming the public face of the country's COVID-19 response during the early days of the pandemic.

"Big front page article about me appeared in the Washington Post," Fauci writes on May 21, 2020. "Very flattering. The situation with my national and international fame is explosive and really unimaginable. It is not hyperbole to say that today I am the most famous and talked about person in the country and one of the most recognizable person[s] in the world."

But Fauci also writes about being uncomfortable with all the attention.

"The 'swag' around me is getting really ridiculous. You can [buy] Fauci T-shirts, mugs, donuts, sweatshirts, candles, pillows, etc. Geeeez!! I do not like this one bit," he writes.

They also chronicle Fauci's private interactions with President Trump, with whom his relationship soured as the pandemic wore on.

Fauci describes Trump as "painfully rambling" during COVID press conferences, and "spewing nonsense" about the pandemic on the 2020 campaign trail.

What's next?

Paul said that the committee will vote next week on holding Fauci in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions from the panel.

The senator argued that Fauci does not have the right to invoke the Fifth Amendment because of the blanket pardon that former President Joe Biden awarded Fauci before leaving office.

"It's against the law to obstruct an investigation of Congress," Paul told Fauci. "There will be repercussions for your refusal to testify."