US health expert Fauci declines to answer questions at Covid committee hearing

Dr Anthony Fauci has repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment and declined to answer dozens of questions from senators in a Republican-led committee hearing about his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The decision, at least for now, shielded Mr Fauci from answering questions that could expose him to accusations of lying under oath.

Though he received a pardon in early 2025 from Democratic President Joe Biden, some Republicans pursuing a years-long campaign for his arrest had suggested he could still face charges for any perjury committed during Wednesday’s hearing.

The scientist, who helped lead the nation’s Covid-19 response, was subpoenaed to testify under oath by Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, who has long had an antagonistic relationship with Dr Fauci.

In response to angry, sometimes mocking, questions from Republican senators, Dr Fauci declined to answer more than 100 times, injecting new drama into partisan divides that have festered for years about the origins and handling of the pandemic.

Dr Fauci has become a polarising figure, even receiving death threats that prompted him to seek security.

In his opening statement, Dr Fauci said Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee chairman Mr Paul has an “obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution”.

“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,” Dr Fauci said, adding that while it pained him to do so, he was following his lawyer’s advice by taking the Fifth.

In the combative hearing, Mr Paul and other Republicans accused Dr Fauci of lying in earlier testimony about the origins of the coronavirus, something the long-time National Institutes of Health scientist has forcefully denied.

Democrats called the hearing a politically motivated attempt at entrapping Dr Fauci and praised the scientist for his work during the pandemic.

With Dr Fauci declining to answer questions throughout, Mr Paul dominated the approximately three-hour hearing, listing a litany of accusations and detailed questions.

“Today will be the capstone to Anthony Fauci’s 40 years of abuse of power at NIH,” Mr Paul said. “History will judge, but the facts as we now know them paint a sordid tale of dishonesty, misjudgment and ultimately the hubris, the likes of which the world has never seen.”

In one heated moment of the hearing, Mr Paul ejected Fauci lawyer David Schertler from the room after he tried to speak without being recognised.

In a statement, Mr Schertler said the removal was “outrageous and demonstrates the completely biased and baseless nature of this proceeding”. In another statement, he called Mr Paul’s accusations about Dr Fauci “false and disgraceful.”

Democratic senators praised Dr Fauci and said he did not deserve the treatment he was getting.

“This hearing is designed to entrap you,” said Senator Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire.

Mr Paul has long argued Dr Fauci should be criminally investigated based on his belief that the scientist was dishonest in previous evidence to Congress.

The senator announced late in the hearing that the committee would vote next week on whether to hold Dr Fauci in contempt for declining to answer questions.

He did not say whether he would push for a criminal contempt referral to federal prosecutors or another charge. He also raised questions about whether Dr Fauci’s pardon affects his eligibility for Fifth Amendment protections.