Anthony Fauci refused to answer questions at a tense US Senate hearing on Covid-19, invoking the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times amid concerns that his evidence could be used to prosecute him for perjury.
The former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told the Senate Committee on Homeland Security that he was acting on legal advice. The constitutional protection allows a person to decline to give evidence that could incriminate them and is not an admission of guilt.
According to BBC News, Fauci said Republican Senator Rand Paul, who chaired the hearing, had an “obvious obsession” with prosecuting him. Fauci said he believed the purpose of calling him before the committee was to seek remarks that could support Paul’s public calls for him to end up “behind bars”.
Paul continued to question Fauci and repeatedly invited him to apologise. He also said the committee would vote next week on a resolution to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress.
Republicans questioned Fauci over pandemic-era health guidance and Covid’s origins. They have long accused him of concealing information from the public and misleading people about the pandemic. Fauci has denied wrongdoing and has previously described allegations against him as “simply preposterous”.
Fauci’s lawyer, David Schertler, attempted to intervene during the questioning and was removed from the room. He later said it was “outrageous” to exclude counsel for making a legal point and accused Paul of pursuing a personal vendetta.
During the hearing, President Donald Trump posted on social media that Fauci was “crazy” and repeated his view that the virus came from a laboratory in Wuhan, China. The origins of Covid remain contested in US politics. The World Health Organization said last year that a natural origin was the best-supported theory based on available evidence, but that the question remained inconclusive.
Senator Ron Johnson said he would push to subpoena Fauci to compel him to answer questions. BBC News also reported that Florida’s Republican attorney general said he would open an investigation into Fauci, while Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan said the hearing had been designed to entrap him.
