Fauci May Have Pleaded the 5th, but the GOP Won’t Stop Until It Has the Truth on COVID-19

Chairman Rand Paul, R-Ky., and the Senate Homeland Security Committee put Dr. Anthony Fauci on center stage Wednesday morning. Republican senators hit him with three hours of questioning about his alleged part in the spread and cover-up of the COVID-19 virus.

Over 100 times, Fauci stayed silent, invoking the Fifth Amendment.

Republican committee members claimed he had no right to invoke the Fifth Amendment and will vote next week to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress. This would ultimately put the investigation in President Donald Trump’s hands.

Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical adviser to Trump during the COVID-19 pandemic, advised major decisions surrounding the pandemic, including vaccine mandates, school closures, and essentially shutting down the economy.

Paul claims Fauci knowingly lied about America funding gain-of-function research at the Wuhan laboratory where the COVID-19 virus was developed. According to Fauci’s “diary entries,” which were made public because he stored them on government property, he knew the wet market was not the source of the virus.

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Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., claims Fauci benefited financially from COVID-19. During the hearing, he shared that Fauci now has a net worth of $12 million. “He is the highest paid government employee ever,” Hawley told reporters afterward, claiming Fauci has a $400,000 yearly pension paid out using taxpayer dollars.

Despite his alleged “full and unconditional pardon” from President Joe Biden for “any offense against the United States which he may have committed or taken part in” from 2014 to 2025, Fauci refused to answer a single question.

“On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution,” Fauci stated repeatedly throughout the hearing.

“Silence is admission,” Hawley said in response.

“He does not have the Fifth Amendment right,” Hawley told the press. “He’s been given a full and unconditional pardon … The Supreme Court’s case law on this is absolutely clear and has been for over a century. When you’ve been pardoned, your privilege disappears. The privilege is a right against self-incrimination leading to prosecution,” Hawley continued.

“I think there is an argument—this has probably never been tested legally—if you’ve been granted full immunity … do you still need Fifth Amendment protections,” Paul told reporters after the hearing.

“We believe that with his immunity from criminal liability, that he didn’t need to hide behind the Fifth Amendment, and that maybe the Fifth Amendment doesn’t attach when you have a pardon in place,” Paul said.

The next step will be up to the U.S. Department of Justice. When asked if it will take up the investigation, the DOJ told the Daily Signal that “the Department seriously reviews all congressional referrals.”

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., seemed to agree with Paul and Hawley, telling the Daily Signal that “ultimately, accountability is done by the executive.”

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., told reporters he wasn’t surprised Fauci pleaded the Fifth. “Yeah, I think that is the right to do that … obviously, that’s his prerogative,” he said when asked to comment on Fauci’s response to senators.

Cully Stimson, acting director of the Legal Policy Center at The Heritage Foundation, also said Fauci may have been within his rights to invoke the Fifth.

Stimson said the pardon was limited to any offense against the United States that he may have committed or taken part in between January 2014 and January 2025 related to his roles at the National Institutes of Health or the White House.

“Any and all questions by members of Congress not related to that timeframe or those jobs are fair game,” Stimson said in a statement to the Daily Signal. “The pardon does not give him a license to lie before Congress or any other body under oath, which helps explain why he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination,” he continued.

“His evasiveness and unwillingness to answer simple questions unrelated to his duties speak volumes about his character,” Stimson concluded.