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Fifth Amendment at Senate
Dr. Anthony Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right to avoid answering questions at a Wednesday Senate hearing led by Republican Sen. Rand Paul about the origins of Covid-19 and the government’s handling of the pandemic.
“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 said in his opening statement that “under the advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions.”
Paul, the committee chairman, said after the hearing that he would call for a vote next week on whether to hold Fauci in contempt for refusing to testify.
Fauci repeatedly declined to answer questions, using the same line: “On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.”
The hearing followed Fauci’s pre-emptive pardon by former President Joe Biden in the final hours of his administration, which Fauci’s lawyers and Paul’s critics said was meant to shield him from political prosecution.
Paul, pardons, and perjury
Fauci accused Paul of trying to force him into testimony that could lead to prosecution, saying “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, ‘behind bars.’”
Paul said he was surprised Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment despite Biden’s preemptive pardon, telling NewsNation’s Katie Pavlich, “he’s been granted a very broad pardon, a 10-year pardon.”
Paul also warned that Fauci’s refusal would come at a cost, saying “There will be repercussions to your refusal to testify today,” and he scheduled a vote on whether to hold Fauci in contempt for Aug. 5.
In the hearing, Paul pressed Fauci on allegations tied to the Wuhan Institute of Virology and “gain-of-function” lab research, while Fauci declined to answer and repeatedly cited his Fifth Amendment rights.
After Fauci’s lawyer David Schertler tried to speak, Paul ordered security to escort him out, and Schertler later described the episode as an “obsessive vendetta.”
What happens next
The Senate panel’s next step is a vote next week on whether to hold Fauci in contempt after he declined to answer more than 100 questions during the hearing.
“Committee chairman Sen. Rand Paul closed the hearing by saying lawmakers will vote next week”
AP reported that the move temporarily sidesteps calls to prosecute Fauci if he is accused of lying at the hearing, as some GOP lawmakers have waged a yearslong campaign for his arrest.
NPR said the hearing lasted nearly three hours and that Fauci declined to answer repeated questions about the lab leak hypothesis, including questions from Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma.
NPR also quoted a law professor, Stanley Brand, saying, “Given the background of this, where they've made obvious threats to try to prosecute him even before the hearing, I don't see that he had any real choice.”
In the aftermath, Al Jazeera framed the dispute around whether Biden’s preemptive pardon protects Fauci from perjury exposure tied to new sworn statements, noting that Republicans claim it does not protect him from alleged crimes committed after it was issued, such as perjuring himself at a Senate hearing.
