WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� on Wednesday repeatedly invoked 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 Fauci from answering questions that could expose him to accusations of lying under oath. Though he received in early 2025 from Democratic President Joe Biden, some Republicans pursuing a yearslong campaign for his arrest had suggested he could still face charges for any perjury committed during Wednesday鈥檚 hearing.
The scientist, who helped lead the nation鈥檚 COVID-19 response, was subpoenaed to testify under oath by Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who has long had an antagonistic relationship with Fauci.
In response to angry, sometimes mocking, questions from Republican senators, Fauci more than 100 times, injecting new drama into partisan divides that have about the origins and handling of . Fauci himself has become a polarizing figure, even receiving death threats that prompted him to seek security.
In his opening statement, Fauci said Paul has an 鈥渙bvious obsession with calling for my prosecution.鈥�
鈥淭he 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,鈥� Fauci said, adding that while it pained him to do so, he was following his attorney鈥檚 advice by taking the Fifth.
Paul, who has long argued that Fauci should be criminally investigated, based on his belief that the scientist was dishonest in previous testimony to Congress, announced that the committee will vote next week on whether to hold 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 Fauci鈥檚 pardon affects his eligibility for Fifth Amendment protections.
Republicans accuse Fauci of lying while Democrats say he didn’t deserve that
In the combative hearing, Paul and other Republicans accused Fauci of lying in earlier testimony about the coronavirus鈥檚 origins, something the longtime National Institutes of Health scientist has forcefully denied. Democrats called the hearing a politically motivated attempt at entrapping Fauci and praised the scientist for his work during the pandemic.
With Fauci declining to answer questions throughout, Paul dominated the approximately three-hour hearing, listing a litany of accusations and detailed questions.
鈥淭oday will be the capstone to Anthony Fauci’s 40 years of abuse of power at NIH,鈥� Paul said. 鈥淗istory 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.鈥�
In a heated moment during the hearing, Paul ejected Fauci鈥檚 attorney, David Schertler, from the room after he tried to speak without being recognized. In a statement, Schertler said the removal was 鈥渙utrageous and demonstrates the completely biased and baseless nature of this proceeding.鈥� In another statement, he called about Fauci 鈥渇alse and disgraceful.鈥�
Democratic senators praised Fauci and said he didn鈥檛 deserve the treatment he was getting.
鈥淭his hearing is designed to entrap you,鈥� said Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire.
Paul released some of Fauci’s diary
Leading up to the hearing, Paul released more than 1,000 pages of Fauci鈥檚 personal diary covering the pandemic years. Pointing to some notes about early efforts at understanding how the virus emerged, Paul said on social media that what Fauci 鈥渨rote privately and what he told the country are two different stories.鈥�
Some of the diary entries 鈥� including Fauci鈥檚 uncertainty in as scientists around the world raced to understand the new virus and how best to curb it before vaccines could be created 鈥� already were reflected in and in interviews at the time.
But they have nonetheless drawn attention from people who blame Fauci for mask mandates, school closures and other policies they believe infringed on their rights as .
President Donald Trump on Wednesday wrote on social media that he stopped relying on Fauci over the course of the pandemic because he felt the scientist made bad decisions about masks, shutdowns, and other issues. He later told reporters he watched the entire hearing.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist before entering public office, said on social media that his department had found the diary entries on government property and had given them to the committee.
Dozens of disease experts defend Fauci
Scientists also scrambled to Fauci鈥檚 defense ahead of the unusual hearing 鈥� the second time he has been back before Congress to discuss pandemic origins since leaving the government in 2022. While the COVID-19 pandemic introduced him to millions of Americans, he talked the nation through numerous outbreaks over decades, including HIV, Ebola and the 2001 anthrax attacks, while advising seven presidents.
In a public letter, more than 150 infectious-disease experts and other scientists wrote that 鈥渘o credible evidence has been produced to support these absurd charges鈥� and that they are urging elected officials to 鈥渟top these witch-hunts.鈥�
Among topics discussed at Wednesday’s hearing was whether NIH-funded research in China may have played a role in .
Many scientists believe the virus most likely emerged in nature and jumped from animals to people, coming to light when it spread at a wildlife market in the Chinese city of Wuhan. There鈥檚 no new scientific evidence supporting the theory that the virus might instead have leaked from a laboratory, a theory Paul champions. A GOP-led subcommittee that studied the question in 2024 found no evidence linking Fauci to wrongdoing.
Fauci has long said publicly that he was open to both theories but that there鈥檚 more evidence supporting COVID-19鈥檚 natural origins.
Republicans also have accused Fauci of lying about whether his agency funded what’s known as gain-of-function research 鈥� the practice of enhancing a virus in a lab to study its potential real-world impact 鈥� at a lab in Wuhan.
The NIH, for years, gave grants to a New York nonprofit called EcoHealth Alliance, which used some of the funds to work with a Chinese lab studying coronaviruses commonly carried by bats. But the definition of gain-of-function covers both general research and especially risky experiments that enhance the ability of potential pandemic viruses to spread or cause severe disease in humans. Fauci has previously stressed he was using the risky experiment definition and that 鈥渋t would be molecularly impossible鈥� for those bat virus experiments to have turned into the pandemic virus.
Trump, a Republican, paused some federally funded gain-of-function research last year, and on Tuesday his administration announced new rules to tighten oversight.
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Swenson reported from New York.
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