Dr Anthony Fauci invokes fifth amendment and declines to testify in Senate COVID-19 hearing

A top health adviser to the White House during the COVID-19 pandemic has refused to answer more than 100 questions at a congressional hearing about his handling of the crisis.

Dr Anthony Fauci, who became the face of the US pandemic response during Donald Trump's first term in office, invoked his constitutional right against self-incrimination when appearing before a Republican-led Senate committee in Washington DC.

The scientist, who is 85 and retired in 2022, declined to answer questions from politicians and accused a Republican senator of having an "unhinged obsession with me".

In his opening statement, the health official, who used to lead the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), said: "Under the advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right under the fifth amendment of the constitution to refrain from answering your ‌questions."

Dr Fauci declined to answer 15 questions from the chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Rand Paul, invoking his fifth amendment rights for each of them.

Mr Paul said the committee had scheduled a vote for next week to hold Dr Fauci in contempt.

There are lingering tensions between Dr Fauci and Republican politicians over his handling of the pandemic and accusations he lied about the origins of COVID-19, which he denies.

Former US president Joe Biden pardoned Dr Fauci on 19 January 2025 for any offences he may have committed since 2014 in ‌connection with COVID-19 or in his role as NIAID director. The pardon does not cover subsequent conduct.

In his opening statement, Mr Paul alleged Dr Fauci helped produce the COVID-19 pandemic by approving funding of research on virus mutations and then covered up his complicity.

Mr Paul claimed Dr Fauci was not allowed to plead the fifth, ​that the presidential pardon would not protect him, and that there would be consequences for his refusal to answer the questions.

Mr Paul said: "The committee will have to consider after this hearing what appropriate action should be taken against you for the failure to testify after being directed to ​do so. It's against the law to obstruct an investigation of Congress. There will be repercussions to your refusal to testify today."

For years, Mr Paul has called for Dr Fauci to ⁠be indicted and accused him of lying to Congress about whether the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded "gain-of-function" research in Wuhan, China, ⁠and of helping cover up the origins of COVID-19.

Dr Fauci denies both claims and says he has testified truthfully multiple times before Congress on these issues.

Gain-of-function research is work that modifies a pathogen so it could become more transmissible or dangerous.

Leading up to the hearing, Mr Paul released more than 1,000 pages of Dr Fauci's personal diary covering the pandemic years.

Pointing to notes about early efforts at working out how the virus emerged, Mr Paul wrote on X that what Dr Fauci "wrote privately and what he told the country are two different stories".

Dr Fauci accused Mr Paul of having an "obsession with calling for my prosecution", "repeated slanderous comments about me", and "publicly releasing my unredacted personal diary aimed at embarrassing and intimidating me".

Dr Fauci said: "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 that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, 'behind bars'.

"Any reasonable person who has followed his unhinged obsession with me would readily come to the same conclusion."

Scientists differ over how narrowly the term "gain-of-function" research should be defined and that disagreement is at the heart of the Paul-Fauci row.

Mr Paul says the NIH funded such work in ⁠Wuhan and that Dr Fauci lied when he denied it, while Dr Fauci says the research did not meet the government's formal regulatory definition.

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The origins of COVID-19 are still unknown.

In 2023, the FBI said a leak from a laboratory in Wuhan likely caused the pandemic - China said this claim had "no credibility whatsoever".

The CIA ​said in January 2025 it had concluded a lab leak was likely, but with "low confidence".

(c) Sky News 2026: Dr Anthony Fauci invokes fifth amendment and declines to testify in Senate COVID-19 hearing