A Senate committee plans to vote next week on whether to recommend holding Anthony Fauci, MD, in contempt following a hearing on Wednesday that centered on how the infectious disease expert handled the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the origins of the deadly coronavirus.
Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times to refrain from answering questions before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee chaired by Sen. Rand Paul, MD (R-Ky.), but Fauci did briefly testify with an opening statement.
"During and after the COVID pandemic, I have appeared multiple times for hearings in the Senate and the House, usually under oath, and sat for several days-long transcribed sworn interviews, answering questions about the very issues that are now the subject of this hearing," Fauci said.
"Given Senator Paul's obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution, his repeated slanderous comments about me, and recently his publicly releasing my unredacted personal diary aimed at embarrassing and intimidating me, 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 -- anything -- that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, 'behind bars,'" Fauci said.
