{"id":21215,"date":"2026-07-29T19:00:39","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T14:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=21215"},"modified":"2026-07-29T19:00:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T14:00:39","slug":"fauci-takes-fifth-amendment-refuses-to-answer-senate-panel-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=21215","title":{"rendered":"Fauci takes Fifth Amendment, refuses to answer Senate panel questions"},"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<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/-z2b__4a4vxbFdAGpEwstRqWXW0=\/0x97:4000x2347\/1366x768\/2026\/07\/29\/1785330891369.jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Dr. Anthony Fauci, who led the nation&#8217;s infectious disease efforts during the pandemic, invoked the Fifth Amendment on Wednesday and declined to answer questions from a Senate committee investigating the origins of COVID-19.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why it matters: <\/strong>Fauci said Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the head of the Senate homeland security committee, was trying to get him to say something that could put him in legal jeopardy.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<ul>\n<li>Former President Biden gave Fauci a preemptive pardon before leaving office, but Fauci argues he could be in trouble if he makes any statements that could open new lines of investigation for the committee.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What he&#8217;s saying: <\/strong>Paul has an &#8220;unhinged obsession with me,&#8221; and his motive for the hearing is to &#8220;get me to say something \u2014 anything \u2014 that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, quote, behind bars unquote,&#8221; Fauci said.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Although it pains me to do so \u2026 under the advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions,&#8221; Fauci said.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The other side: <\/strong>&#8220;There will be repercussions to your refusal to testify today,&#8221; Paul told Fauci.<\/p>\n<p><em>This is breaking news. Check back for updates.<\/em><\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr. Anthony Fauci, who led the nation&#8217;s infectious disease efforts during the pandemic, invoked the Fifth Amendment on Wednesday and declined to answer questions from a Senate committee investigating the origins of COVID-19. Why it matters: Fauci said Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the head of the Senate homeland security committee, was trying to get him&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/-z2b__4a4vxbFdAGpEwstRqWXW0=\/0x97:4000x2347\/1366x768\/2026\/07\/29\/1785330891369.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21215","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=21215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}