{"id":21211,"date":"2026-07-29T18:54:38","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T13:54:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=21211"},"modified":"2026-07-29T18:54:38","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T13:54:38","slug":"rand-paul-threatens-dr-fauci-for-pleading-the-5th-amendment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=21211","title":{"rendered":"Rand Paul Threatens Dr. Fauci For Pleading the 5th Amendment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"post-body\">\n<p>Sen. <strong>Rand Paul<\/strong> (R-KY) lit into his arch-nemesis Dr. <strong>Anthony Fauci<\/strong> during a Senate hearing on Wednesday, threatening \u201crepercussions\u201d for the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/news\/watch-dr-fauci-pleads-the-fifth-over-a-dozen-times-in-the-face-of-rand-pauls-questions\/\">for invoking<\/a> his constitutionally guaranteed right against self-incrimination.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDr. Fauci, would you like to at least answer this one question for us today and let us know whether or not you\u2019ve changed your mind on whether or not the benefits of gain-of-function research outweigh the risks?\u201d Rand <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2026\/07\/29\/nx-s1-5910542\/fauci-rand-paul-diary-coronavirus-origin-lab-leak-hearing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">asked<\/a> as he ran out of questions amid Fauci\u2019s refusal to answer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer, based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution,\u201d Fauci replied.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe chairman has denied your assertion of privilege and directed you to answer, but you nonetheless refuse and stand on privilege despite the existence of the pardon,\u201d Paul shot back, adding:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>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\u2019s against the law to obstruct an investigation of Congress. There will be repercussions to your refusal to testify today.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Paul has long argued that Fauci should see prison time, alleging he lied to Congress as far back as 2021.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a felony punishable by five years in jail,\u201d Paul <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/news\/rand-paul-calls-for-dr-fauci-to-face-5-years-in-jail-for-lying-to-congress\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told<\/a> Fox News host <strong>Sean Hannity<\/strong> in September of 2021, \u201cI don\u2019t think Biden Department of Justice will do anything with it, but \u2026 it is very dangerous to have public officials who we need to have trust in coming and lying to us. But he has lied dozens of times. Usually he tells us it\u2019s for our own good.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fauci, for his part, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/politics\/dr-fauci-calls-out-rand-pauls-unhinged-obsession-with-him-in-fiery-opening-statement\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">accused<\/a> Paul of having an \u201cunhinged obsession\u201d with him in his opening statement before the hearing and dismissed Paul\u2019s hearing as political grandstanding.<\/p>\n<p>Watch the clip above via MS NOW.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>New: The Mediaite One-Sheet &#8220;Newsletter of Newsletters&#8221;<\/strong><br \/>Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/subscribe\">Subscribe now!<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\nn.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\nn.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\nt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,\ndocument,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) lit into his arch-nemesis Dr. Anthony Fauci during a Senate hearing on Wednesday, threatening \u201crepercussions\u201d for the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for invoking his constitutionally guaranteed right against self-incrimination. \u201cDr. Fauci, would you like to at least answer this one question for us&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/rand-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsweek-trending"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}