Anthony Fauci invokes Fifth Amendment over 100 times at Senate COVID hearing, faces contempt vote

The hearing

Anthony Fauci appeared before the Senate Homeland Security Committee on July 29, 2026, chaired by Republican Rand Paul. The session, part of an investigation into COVID-19 origins and taxpayer-funded research, lasted more than four hours. Fauci, 85, invoked the Fifth Amendment over 100 times, refusing to answer any questions. He accused Paul of an "unbalanced obsession" and said the senator's goal was to see him imprisoned.

“The only reason you have summoned me before this committee is to get me to say something that could support your repeated public promises, to use your words, that I will end up 'behind bars'.”

Contempt threat

Paul argued that Fauci could not invoke the Fifth Amendment and that a preemptive pardon from Joe Biden did not shield him from contempt charges. He announced the Senate would vote on holding Fauci in contempt of Congress. During the hearing, Paul ordered Fauci's lawyer, David Schertler, removed from the room for speaking without permission. Schertler later called Paul's actions an "obsessive vendetta" dating back to 2021.

Trump's attack

Before the hearing, Donald Trump posted on Truth Social, calling Fauci's ideas "crazy" and accusing him of protecting China on the lab-leak theory. Trump claimed many more people died of COVID under Biden and touted Operation Warp Speed as a spectacular success. He said he trusted Fauci less over time and that Fauci had wanted to shut down the country.

“From the beginning I stated that the virus came from the Wuhan lab in China. Fauci strongly disagreed, always trying to protect China.”

Fauci's defense and pardon

Fauci, who led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for 38 years and testified before Congress more than 200 times, said he respected legislative oversight but feared his words would be twisted to support a predetermined conclusion of guilt. He received a pardon from Biden on January 19, 2025, covering actions up to that date. Democrats on the committee called the hearing a months-long effort to legitimize a verdict already reached.

What's next

The Senate contempt vote could lead to a criminal referral. Fauci's legal team maintains that the Fifth Amendment protects him from self-incrimination. The hearing underscored the ongoing political divide over pandemic measures and the origins of SARS-CoV-2.