Fauci invokes Fifth Amendment at Senate hearing, refuses to answer questions on Wuhan lab research

Published Jul 29, 03:50 PM UTC

At a Senate Homeland Security and Government Committee hearing chaired by Sen. Rand Paul, Anthony Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment to avoid answering questions about gain-of-function research funded by his former agency, NIAID, at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Fauci cited Paul's 'obsession' with prosecuting him and the release of his personal diary as reasons for refusing to testify. Despite receiving a pardon from President Biden covering his conduct since 2014, Fauci declined to answer questions. The article highlights contradictions between Fauci's public denials that NIAID funded gain-of-function research in Wuhan and his private diary entries from early 2020, where he considered the possibility that such research could have created SARS-CoV-2. The hearing produced no new substantive statements due to Fauci's invocation of the Fifth.