Fauci invokes Fifth Amendment in heated COVID-19 Senate hearing

Published 29 July 2026 · health

The leading physician has declined to answer Senate questions as Republicans like Rand Paul accuse him of covering up COVID’s origins. Retired immunologist Anthony Fauci

The leading physician has declined to answer Senate questions as Republicans like Rand Paul accuse him of covering up COVID’s origins. Retired immunologist Anthony Fauci, 85, has declined to answer questions from United States senators about his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, invoking protections under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution. On Wednesday, Fauci appeared before a Republican-led committee on homeland security and government affairs, led by Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, who has been critical of the physician’s record during the pandemic. Repeatedly, Fauci offered the following line: “On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based on my rights under the Fifth Amendment.” In his opening statement, he explained that it “pains” him to invoke the Fifth Amendment, but he said he feared Paul might twist his words to seek a criminal prosecution. “The sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to prompt me to say something, anything, that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, ‘behind bars’,” Fauci said. Fauci led the Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the time when the COVID-19 crisis began in late 2019 and early 2020.

The pandemic catapulted Fauci into the public eye, making him a household name. But his medical guidance led him to clash with President Donald Trump during the waning days of his first term. After Trump’s defeat in the 2020 elections, Fauci became chief medical adviser to Trump’s successor, Democrat Joe Biden, for the first half of his presidency. He stepped down from both the Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and his White House role in 2022. Republican lawmakers have long criticised Fauci for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, and some have accused him of lying about the origins of the pandemic, which he denies. Though he received a presidential pardon from Biden, some of Fauci’s critics have suggested he could still face charges if he perjures himself under oath. In June, Paul subpoenaed Fauci to appear before the Senate committee, citing the immunologist’s decision not to voluntarily testify. In Wednesday’s opening statement, Paul sought to build the case that Fauci helped cause the COVID-19 pandemic by approving funding for research on virus mutations and then covered up his complicity. “I hope today Dr Fauci will come clean, admit it was a mistake to fund research in China, admit that the risk of this research exceeded any possible benefits,” Paul said.