Anthony Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right more than 100 times during a Senate hearing declining to answer questions about his pandemic-era diary and the origins of Covid-19. As detailed by BBC, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases appeared before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs at the Senate Dirksen Building. The hearing marked a new chapter in the ongoing scrutiny of how health officials handled the pandemic.

The Fifth Amendment protects individuals from being compelled to testify against themselves in a criminal matter. Fauci said he was acting on his attorneys’ advice in declining to answer, and added that he believed the hearing was designed to pressure him into a statement that could be used against him. He suggested Senator Rand Paul, who chaired the proceedings, wanted him to say something that could validate Paul’s past comments about Fauci ending up “behind bars.”

Senator Paul, a former eye surgeon, continued pressing Fauci with questions despite the repeated refusals to answer. Paul asked Fauci to apologize for his handling of pandemic-era health policies and said the committee would vote next week on whether to hold him in contempt of Congress. One of Fauci’s attorneys, David Schertler, was removed from the hearing room after repeatedly interjecting during the questioning, and later called the move “outrageous.”

Diary entries from the pandemic era show Fauci considered both a natural origin and a lab leak for the virus early on. In a February 2020 entry, he wrote that scientists lacked “total agreement” on the source. Later entries show his position shifting, as he leaned toward a natural species jump while keeping an open mind about a lab leak, noting that two possibilities being available does not make them equally likely.

Republican senators, including Ron Johnson, said they plan to pursue a subpoena to compel further answers about the diary entries and the shifting pandemic guidance. The hearing took place the same week a Planet Fitness billing dispute was separately making the rounds online.

The legal situation surrounding Fauci remains complicated. As BBC reported, he received a pre-emptive pardon from former President Joe Biden covering actions between 2014 and 2025, but he could still face charges tied to conduct after that period, along with potential state-level investigations. Florida’s attorney general said following the hearing that the state intends to open its own investigation into the former official.

President Donald Trump responded to the hearing on social media, calling Fauci “crazy” and repeating his past claim that the virus originated from a laboratory in China. The World Health Organization has said the natural origin theory is currently the best supported by available evidence, though the question remains officially unresolved. Several Democratic senators, including Maggie Hassan, said they believed the hearing was intended to entrap Fauci rather than gather information. Elsewhere online that week, a $63 Costco seafood boil post from an LA influencer also went viral amid unrelated chatter.

The Senate committee is scheduled to vote next week on whether to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress, according to the committee’s official hearing record.

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