Fauci invokes 5th Amendment at Rand Paul’s Senate hearing
What's new: The former NIH official refused to answer questions at a GOP-led hearing on COVID-19 origins after being subpoenaed to appear.
Anthony Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment on Wednesday and refused to answer questions at a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing led by Sen. Rand Paul. Fauci, the former top infectious-disease official at the National Institutes of Health, said he was acting on advice of counsel despite what he called a long record of cooperating with Congress. Paul subpoenaed Fauci to testify as Republicans renewed scrutiny of the origins of the coronavirus. Fauci accused Paul of trying to force statements that could support the senator’s calls to put him “behind bars.” Over the weekend, Paul released more than 1,000 pages from Fauci’s pandemic-era diary.