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Dr. Anthony Fauci was asked at least 111 questions today during a contentious congressional hearing on the origins of COVID-19 and his role in leading the government’s response to the pandemic.
And at least 111 times, Fauci said the same thing:
“On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.”
Fauci repeatedly invoked what he claimed was his Fifth Amendment right to not answer the committee’s questions — even though former President Joe Biden granted Fauci a preemptive pardon last year, shielding him from federal prosecution for his official actions dating back to 2014.
Immediately following today’s hearing, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced that his office is launching an investigation into Fauci.
“Fauci’s lack of candor to Congress is unbelievable,” Uthmeier wrote on X. “My office is launching an investigation into Dr. Fauci. It’s past time we get the truth of what happened during COVID.”
Legal experts said Biden’s preemptive pardon doesn’t protect Fauci from state-level charges.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, said the committee will schedule a vote next week on a resolution to hold Fauci in contempt.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) asked Fauci to agree to volunteer for a transcribed Senate interview — to which Fauci again invoked the Fifth Amendment.
“Expect a subpoena. Thank you,” Johnson said.
This is about contempt. … for the American people’
During the hearing, Fauci dodged questions on topics including COVID-19 vaccine injuries, whether SARS-CoV-2 was engineered through gain-of-function research, and whether he and his aides destroyed documents or used personal email accounts to bypass federal recordkeeping requirements.
Paul criticized Fauci for his refusal to answer questions. He said:
“A pardon may protect a person from criminal prosecution. It doesn’t rewrite history. It does not erase documents. It does not convert a misleading statement into a truthful one. And it does not prevent Congress from establishing what happened.”
Perhaps the sharpest attack against Fauci’s refusal to answer questions came from Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who suggested that the Fifth Amendment doesn’t shield Fauci.
“You don’t have any rights under the Fifth Amendment because you have been pardoned, as you very well know,” Hawley said, citing an 1896 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Brown v. Walker. “This is about contempt. Contempt for this body and contempt for the American people.”
🚨 JUST NOW: Sen. Josh Hawley SCORCHES Dr. Fauci, explaining he does NOT the right to plead the fifth
“You don’t have ANY rights under the Fifth Amendment because you have been PARDONED, as you very well know.”
“The Supreme Court has been clear for a century or more. Brown v.… pic.twitter.com/1shoXYrhQB
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) July 29, 2026
Fauci ‘would not turn to look’ at people who suffered under COVID policies
Fauci’s only remarks — other than the occasions when he invoked the Fifth Amendment — came during his two-minute opening statement, when he criticized Paul’s “unhinged obsession.”
“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,’” Fauci said.
In his 13-minute opening statement, Paul suggested Fauci played a key role in a cover-up of COVID-19’s origins, citing entries from Fauci’s journals, which Paul published earlier this week.
“Publicly, Anthony Fauci promoted the theory that the virus arose naturally. While privately, he was well aware of a mountain of evidence suggesting the virus originated in the lab,” Paul said.
Paul suggested that pandemic-era policies Fauci championed harmed Americans.
“Worship, assembly, employment, education and travel were restricted in the name of science. While you did not impose every restriction, you used your public authority to justify them,” Paul said.
Over the course of the hearing, Fauci even refused to answer questions about what day of the week it was, what color tie he was wearing, what the text of the Fifth Amendment says or even whether there was a folder in front of him.
🚨 JUST NOW: Sen. Paul informs Anthony Fauci that he’s BREAKING THE LAW for by REFUSING to answer questions in this hearing
PAUL: “In the red folder on your table is a copy of Section 192 of Title II of the US Code… That section makes it a CRIME for a witness appearing under… https://t.co/JVItFvy6u0 pic.twitter.com/Sd6DNMY19z
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) July 29, 2026
Johnson said Fauci’s opening statement and evasiveness were “a stunning indictment” of his actions “that have been so destructive to global health.”
“I certainly understand why, on the advice of counsel, you’re not answering any questions, because I think it’d be almost impossible for you to answer the questions truthfully without really demonstrating what you did, your culpability,” Johnson said.
Mary Holland, CEO of Children’s Health Defense (CHD), attended today’s hearing. She said that despite Fauci’s refusal to answer, the Republican senators on the committee were “well prepared” and asked pertinent questions.
Holland said one of the hearing’s “most powerful moments” was when Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) asked everyone in the audience who had been adversely affected by COVID-19 to stand up.
“Everybody in the room stood up, and Dr. Fauci would not turn to look at them,” Holland said.
Fauci attorney ejected from hearing after he tried to intervene
Perhaps the most vocal moment from Fauci’s side came not from Fauci himself but from one of the lawyers representing him, defense attorney David Schertler. Schertler tried to intervene several times when Paul suggested that Fauci would face consequences for his refusal to respond.
🚨 BREAKING: Sen. Rand Paul just had Capitol Police EJECT Anthony Fauci’s attorney from the building after he REFUSED to stop screaming during the hearing
Lock this guy up too.
This is one big Fauci crime syndicate. pic.twitter.com/D8ibme62bB
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) July 29, 2026
After Schertler continued to speak, Paul asked security to eject him from the room.
Holland said none of the committee’s Democratic members asked Fauci questions or remained in the room for the full hearing. Several of them instead chose to attack the public health policies of the Trump administration and U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Holland called the lack of bipartisanship “disheartening.”
“The Democratic senators did not engage at all with whether Fauci had been truthful in the past with Congress or whether his activities were useful or even legal. What they said was essentially irrelevant to the purpose of the hearing,” Holland said.
The only Democratic senator who appeared to question Fauci’s actions was Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), who expressed “regrets” about having been “blinded” by the idea that truth about COVID-19’s origins could only have come from one side.
John Fetterman is in a suit today… so you know how serious this is.
He says he regrets believing the lies Fauci pushed. pic.twitter.com/2dY6EcrJ1F
— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) July 29, 2026
Fauci’s legacy ‘ends in total and complete disgrace’
Legal experts questioned Fauci’s refusal to answer questions. Attorney Greg Glaser said it was “ironic that Fauci denied the Fifth Amendment right to bodily integrity — that would have prevented vaccine mandates — yet claimed the Fifth Amendment right to remain silent.”
“Fauci has already been convicted in the court of public opinion, and now he’s trying to hide under the rock of the Fifth Amendment,” Glaser said.
Public health experts also questioned Fauci’s behavior during the hearing. Dr. Monique Yohanan, director of the Center for Better Health at Independent Women, asked what Fauci’s stance “means for public confidence.” She said:
“Medicine depends on transparency and a willingness to take accountability for difficult decisions. Dr. Fauci shaped policies that affected hundreds of millions of Americans.
“Answering legitimate questions is the first step toward rebuilding the trust that was broken during the pandemic. The American people deserve not just the truth — they deserve an apology.”
Moreno suggested that Fauci, who retired from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in 2022, tarnished his legacy by refusing to answer any questions during today’s hearing.
“You may have had a 50-plus-year legacy of public service. But it ends in total and complete disgrace,” Moreno said.
🚨 NOW: Sen. Bernie Moreno is absolutely TORCHING Dr. Fauci to his face
“Who the F—K do you think you were?! It is a TOTAL DISGRACE what you did to this country.”
“You may have had a 50 plus year legacy of public service. But it ends in total and complete DISGRACE.” pic.twitter.com/Mi2Oh7ElHv
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) July 29, 2026
In Truth Social post, Trump called Fauci’s ideas ‘CRAZY’
Fauci was subpoenaed last month as part of Paul’s ongoing investigation into the origins of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19.
The subpoena followed revelations from Paul’s office about Fauci’s pandemic-era actions.
Earlier this week, Paul released Fauci’s diaries, revealing that Fauci ruled out the Wuhan wet market as the origin of the COVID-19 outbreak, that he and key virologists privately raised the possibility that COVID-19 originated in a lab, and that scientists at the National Institutes of Health questioned Fauci about deleted COVID-19 records.
Fauci’s journal entries also revealed that he was treated for pulmonary infarction — an area of damaged lung tissue caused by loss of blood flow — months after he received the Moderna mRNA COVID-19 shot.
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President Donald Trump weighed in on Fauci’s record before today’s hearing. In a Truth Social post, he called Fauci’s pandemic-era ideas “CRAZY.”
“I said from the beginning that the Virus came from the Wuhan Laboratory in China. Fauci strongly disagreed, always trying to protect China. … In any event I didn’t let him shut the Country down, although he wanted to. I went the Federalist way, and let the governors decide,” Trump wrote.
Holland credited Paul with orchestrating today’s hearing and placing Fauci’s actions back in the public eye.
“I’m gratified that Senator Paul made this hearing happen,” Holland said. “It would not have happened without his persistence and his recognition that there was something fundamentally wrong with the way Dr. Fauci conducted himself during COVID.”
Holland said CHD will remain active in efforts to hold Fauci accountable for his pandemic-era actions.
“CHD is going to be part of it from here on out, until we get some level of truth and accountability,” she said.
Watch the full hearing here:
Related articles in The Defender
- Rand Paul Issues Subpoena Forcing Fauci to Testify Under Oath
- Fauci Treated for Pulmonary Infarction Months After Getting COVID Vaccine, Diaries Show
- ‘I Am the Most Famous’: Fauci Basked in Media Spotlight, Newly Released Diaries Show
- Smoking Gun? Documents Suggest Fauci Knew COVID Was Created in Wuhan Lab, and mRNA Vaccines Wouldn’t Work
- CIA Whistleblower: Fauci Led Multi-Agency Cover-Up of COVID Lab Leak Evidence
- ‘Fauci Wants the Money’: Emails Suggest Fauci Illegally Used Government Position to Amass Wealth
