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Dr. Anthony Fauci on July 29 declined to answer questions from senators following the release of a diary he compiled while working in government.
“Although it pains me to do so, because of the respect I have for the Legislative Branch for 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,” Fauci, 85, who led the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) from 1984 to 2022, said in his opening statement during a hearing in Washington.
Fauci repeated more than 100 times in response to questions that he would not answer them, pursuant to the Fifth Amendment.
The Fifth Amendment says no person “shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.” Fauci received a preemptive pardon in 2025.
Federal law makes it a crime for a person who is subpoenaed by Congress to “refuse to answer any question pertinent to the question under inquiry” and to, in certain situations, withhold information from Congress. Fauci, who was appearing pursuant to a subpoena issued by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, could face misdemeanor or felony charges.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the chairman of the committee, told reporters after the hearing that the committee would next week vote on whether to recommend charges against Fauci for contempt of Congress.
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“We believe that with his liability, his immunity from criminal liability, that he didn’t need to hide behind the Fifth Amendment, and that maybe the Fifth Amendment doesn’t attach when you have a pardon in place,” Paul said.