A Senate committee plans to vote next week on whether to recommend holding Anthony Fauci, MD, in contempt following a hearing on Wednesday that centered on how the infectious disease expert handled the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the origins of the deadly coronavirus.
Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times to refrain from answering questions before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee chaired by Sen. Rand Paul, MD (R-Ky.), but Fauci did briefly testify with an opening statement.
“During and after the COVID pandemic, I have appeared multiple times for hearings in the Senate and the House, usually under oath, and sat for several days-long transcribed sworn interviews, answering questions about the very issues that are now the subject of this hearing,” Fauci said.
“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.
Paul in recent weeks has suggested that Fauci could face charges if he committed perjury during the hearing.
Several Republicans on Wednesday argued that Fauci’s pardon — received in January 2025 from President Biden for all actions Fauci performed from Jan. 1, 2014, until the date the pardon was issued — prevented him from taking the Fifth because he already could not be prosecuted for anything he said.
The hearing room grew tense when Paul had David Schertler, one of Fauci’s lawyers, removed from the hearing after Schertler tried to speak from Fauci’s table. “He was not invited to testify, and he was out of order,” Paul said afterward. “And it was appropriate to have him ejected.”
Paul told Fauci toward the end of the nearly 3-hour hearing that he was “citing a privilege that is unsupported” and that the committee would vote next week “on a resolution certifying your contempt.”
If the committee votes to recommend a contempt charge, it would then have to go to the full Senate for a vote.
Years of Controversy
The hearing was just the latest in a long-running battle between Fauci and Paul, who has long criticized Fauci’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic during his time as NIAID director. Paul also claimed Fauci lied about his views on the cause of the pandemic and whether it originated at a Chinese wet market in Wuhan or from a “lab leak.”
Fauci has long said he views the natural origins theory as most likely — that the virus was transmitted to humans from an animal — but has also said that he’s kept an open mind about the possibility of a lab leak.
Last weekend, Paul released a tranche of private diary entries from Fauci. Some of the information has already been made public, but the entries have nonetheless drawn attention from people who blame Fauci for mask mandates, school closures, and other policies they believe infringed on their rights as hundreds of thousands of people were dying of COVID-19.
Paul also has tangled with Fauci over the issue of gain-of-function research, claiming that Fauci approved NIH funding for gain-of-function research at a Wuhan laboratory and that Fauci had changed the definition of such research on the NIH website in order to cover his tracks.
On Tuesday, HHS released a document barring federal funding for gain-of-function research conducted in the U.S. and abroad and establishing independent review for certain high-risk life sciences research. It also “restricts federal funding for research conducted in countries or institutions that lack appropriate biosafety, biosecurity, and oversight standards,” according to the HHS announcement.
Compliments and Brickbats
Prior to Wednesday’s hearing, a group of 155 scientists, physicians, and public health advocates signed an open letter calling on elected officials to end the “vilification and harassment” of scientists. The letter states that there’s no evidence to support the “absurd” charges being levied against Fauci, including that he holds patents on the virus, and that he’s working with intelligence agencies to suppress the true story of the pandemic.
Nonetheless, Republicans on the committee used the hearing to inveigh against the 85-year-old Fauci, who served under seven presidents, both Democrats and Republicans.
“You, more than any person or event in my lifetime, have destroyed that trust [in public health authorities] for millions of Americans,” said Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.). “You lied to hundreds of millions of people amid the worst public health crisis in a century. You failed to follow your own guidance. You forced people to watch their loved ones die alone over the phone. It’s disgusting.”
Sen. Ashley Moody (R-Fla.) asked Fauci to explain his flip-flop on masks early in the pandemic, noting that he first said that masks wouldn’t provide a high level of protection, but later admitted that the administration wanted to save masks — which were in short supply at the time — for healthcare workers. “So when you told the American people there was no reason to wear a mask, what was your principal objective — giving them an honest assessment of the medical evidence, or discouraging them from consuming a scarce supply of masks?” she said.
Democrats, on the other hand, thanked Fauci for his service and apologized for Republicans’ behavior.
“The Republicans are eager to rebrand you as a villain to distract from their own failures,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). “The Trump administration has been engaged in a campaign to rewrite [the pandemic’s] history, and today’s hearing is a continuation of that effort.”
“Instead of focusing on the national security challenges we’re facing now, today’s hearing looks backwards, rehearing questions the committee already examined,” said Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.). “Rather than building on that work to strengthen preparedness for future disasters, we are re-litigating the past … The Trump administration seems to be doing everything in their power to actually weaken our capabilities. The administration has hollowed out the public health workforce. They have fired, pushed out, and cut funding for public health personnel, shrinking the CDC workforce by a quarter.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
