Former top U.S. infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, refused to answer questions during a Senate hearing on July 29, 2026, invoking the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, which protects American citizens from self-incrimination, before going on to slam Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) for launching an “unhinged” campaign to see him tossed behind bars.
Fauci, who is 85, retired as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in 2022. He was subpoenaed by Paul, who is the Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The former director refused to answer over 100 questions during the hearing.
Paul stated that Fauci was not allowed to plead the Fifth Amendment in order to avoid answering senators’ questions, going on to say that former President Joe Biden’s pardon would not protect him, and that there would be serious consequences for refusing to answer. The committee is now scheduled to vote next week on whether to hold Fauci in contempt. The questions are centered around Fauci’s strategy for dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fauci himself delivered a statement before the committee, saying, “Over 200 times over those 38 years, 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.”
He then slammed Paul, referring to his efforts to uncover the truth about the pandemic as an “obsession” and said the senator’s comments against him were slanderous. “However, 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,” Fauci 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 quote ‘behind bars’ unquote. Any reasonable person who has followed his unhinged obsession with me would readily come to the same conclusion. Therefore, although it pains me to do so,” he said in a viral clip of the statement.
According to a report from Reuters, federal law considers it a crime to knowingly and willfully make a “materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation” to Congress, which could carry some significant consequences for Fauci, including prison, if prosecutors decide he lied after receiving his pardon from former President Biden.
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Republicans have slammed Fauci for his lack of transparency, saying that federal law, along with a Supreme Court decision from the 19th century requires him to provide answers to the questions he was asked. During the proceedings, the former NIAID director invoked the Fifth Amendment when Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MI) asked him about the color of his tie and the carpet in the room.
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