Fauci Stuns Congress by Pleading the Fifth 111 Times
“It’s AGAINST THE LAW to obstruct an investigation of Congress. There will be repercussions to your refusal to testify today.”
A visibly shaken Anthony Fauci could not even answer what color tie he was wearing as he had to be dragged out to Capitol Hill to answer questions about the government's COVID-19 response, his private diary, and taxpayer-funded research in Wuhan.
Again and again, Fauci pleaded the Fifth — 111 times in all — even when senators asked him about a folder sitting directly in front of him, what day of the week it was, and whether he would simply turn around and look at people who said their lives were destroyed by COVID-era policies.
Lawmakers warned him over and over: the Fifth Amendment no longer applies to him because of Biden’s blanket pardon. He could admit everything and still walk away without prosecution.
Fauci had total immunity, and he still refused to tell the truth.
That didn’t stop him from being battered and bruised along the way.
Here are the biggest moments from the hearing. And the big takeaway moving forward.
Sen. Rand Paul began the hearing by laying out Fauci’s litany of misdeeds and demanding he apologize to the American people and ask for forgiveness.
“The American people deserve an apology.”
“I hope today Dr. Fauci will come clean, admit it was a mistake to fund dangerous research in China…”
“Ask forgiveness…”
“You did not tell the American people the full story.”
“One thing in public and another in private.”
Fauci used his opening statement not to address the underlying allegations, but to attack Senator Paul instead.
With his papers visibly shaking, Fauci accused Paul of waging a personal campaign to embarrass, intimidate, and ultimately prosecute him.
“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, quote, ‘behind bars,’ unquote.”
Fauci then announced that he would invoke the Fifth Amendment rather than answer the committee’s questions.
“Any reasonable person who has followed his unhinged obsession with me would readily come to the same conclusion.”
“Therefore, although it pains me to do so, because of the respect I have for the legislative branch of government and my decades-long record of cooperating with Congress, under the advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions.”
As the hearing progressed and Fauci refused to answer every question that came his way, Paul directed Fauci to a red folder sitting on the desk in front of him. Inside, Paul said, was a copy of the federal statute governing a witness’s refusal to answer questions before Congress.
Paul then asked Fauci whether he had the folder.
PAUL: “In the red folder on your table is a copy of Section 192 of Title 2 of the U.S. Code… That section makes it a crime for a witness… to refuse to answer any questions… Do you have that in front of you?”
FAUCI: “On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer, but based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.”
Paul paused to make sure the absurdity was entered into the official record.
PAUL: “Let the record reflect that the witness has refused to answer whether there’s a folder in front of him based on his Fifth Amendment right.”
Paul gave Fauci another opportunity to answer at least one question.
Fauci refused again.
Paul explicitly told Fauci he could not plead the Fifth as a blanket excuse to obstruct the entire investigation, particularly after receiving a pardon.
PAUL: “Dr. Fauci, would you like to at least answer this one question for us today…?”
FAUCI: “On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline…”
Paul responded that the chairman had denied Fauci’s assertion of privilege and directed him to answer.
PAUL: “The 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.”
“It’s against the law to obstruct an investigation of Congress. There will be repercussions to your refusal to testify today.”
Sen. Ron Johnson then turned to a deeply personal disclosure found in Fauci’s diary.
Fauci’s private notes revealed that he suffered a pulmonary infarction five months after receiving his first injection. He kept his medical condition hidden and kept recommending the shots for everyone else.
Johnson asked Fauci if he ever considered whether his infarction was linked to the jab.
JOHNSON: “Your diaries now show that you actually suffered pulmonary infarction…”
“I was just wondering whether it ever went through your mind that maybe that injection, all those boosters you took, might have caused that?”
Fauci did not provide the public with an answer.
Johnson next brought out a massive stack of papers representing studies showing that ivermectin was “60 to 70%” effective.
He contrasted those studies with Fauci’s public declaration that there was no evidence supporting the treatment.
JOHNSON: “You said there’s no evidence that ivermectin is helpful.”
“On that exact same day… there was a website that was tracking the randomized controlled studies.”
Johnson held up the documents.
“Here they are showing 60, 70 percent efficacy of ivermectin. The same day you say there’s no evidence. There was all kinds of evidence.”
One of Fauci’s attorneys would later try to testify on his behalf, and he was promptly thrown out of the room for doing so.
Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal objected to the treatment of Fauci’s attorney, accusing the committee of conducting a “show trial.”
BLUMENTHAL: “His attorney has been gagged, thrown out of this hearing room…”
“[Mistakes] should certainly be addressed. But not in a show trial…”
Paul fired back that Fauci could not refuse to testify and then use his lawyer to make the defense he was unwilling to make himself.
PAUL: “In no courtroom in America can you have your witness plead the Fifth Amendment, then your attorney gets to testify. That’s what that letter is.”
“The attorney’s complaining and testifying, saying, ‘He didn’t do it. The prosecution’s unfair.’”
“You don’t get to do that. That’s one thing you give up when you take the Fifth Amendment.”
Paul said Fauci’s attorney was free to make those arguments publicly—but had not been invited to testify before the committee.
“You say, ‘I’m not going to testify, I’m not going to give you any information.’ You don’t then get to put your lawyer forward to justify it.”
“He can do it in the press, but you can’t come and testify.”
“[Fauci’s lawyer] was not invited to testify, and he was out of order, and it was appropriate to have him ejected.”
Sen. Josh Hawley decided to demonstrate just how far Fauci was taking his refusal to answer questions.
It exposed Fauci’s refusal as so ridiculous that you could even hear the chuckles in the audience:
HAWLEY: “What day of the week is it today?”
FAUCI: “I respectfully decline to answer…”
HAWLEY: “What color tie are you wearing?”
FAUCI: “I respectfully decline to answer…”
HAWLEY: “What color is the carpet in front of you?”
FAUCI: “I respectfully decline to answer…”
Hawley then brought the receipts and exposed Dr. Fauci for using 8 different federal employees on federal time to chase over $1,000,000 in cash prizes for himself.
HAWLEY: “You got rich while people were dying.”
“You were using federal employees with taxpayer money to apply for and solicit cash prizes for you personally. Cash prizes totaling over a million dollars.”
“And what were these individuals doing in the depth of the pandemic in November of 2020 when millions of Americans were suffering from COVID?”
“What were they doing? I tell you what they’re doing. Folkers was on your behalf soliciting and gathering information for a cash award.”
Hawley displayed an email in which Greg Folkers allegedly sought stronger language for Fauci’s nomination for the Dan David Prize.
“Let’s look at it. We’ve got his email right here. Right over my shoulder.”
“Folkers says, ‘I’m working on this nomination for the Dan David award for Fauci. We need to beef up the COVID part. Do you have language in the that you could share that delineates how we responded in new ways to COVID.’”
Hawley asked Fauci whether he remembered the award.
HAWLEY: “What was the Dan David award? Do you remember, doc?”
FAUCI: “On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.”
Hawley supplied the answer himself.
HAWLEY: “It was a $900,000 cash award. $900,000 cash award.”
“And he got it because he used federal employees to get it.”
Hawley alleged that the Dan David Prize was only one of numerous awards pursued with government personnel and resources.
“Besides the Dan David award, you’ve got the Partnership for Public Service. You’ve got the Adelson prize, you’ve got the Smithsonian award, you’ve got the National Academy of Medicines award, you’ve got the CDC Foundation.”
“In fact, you turn your staff into a full-time application machine.”
According to Hawley, at least eight federal employees were involved:
Greg Folkers
Lawrence Tabak
Holli Jaffe
Patricia Conrad
Courtney Billet
Louis Miller
Katherine Miller
Hugh Auchincloss
HAWLEY: “You used eight separate federal employees on federal time using federal resources to solicit cash awards. Isn’t that true?”
FAUCI: “On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.”
“Your staff and employees on federal time using federal resources, being paid with federal dollars, are soliciting cash for you.”
“And then they’re turning around and saying to the agency, ‘We don’t want just an answer. We want to get to yes.’”
“Because Fauci wants the money.”
Sen. Bernie Moreno then tested whether Fauci would even explain the constitutional amendment he had invoked throughout the hearing.
MORENO: “What does the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution say?”
Fauci’s lawyer tapped him on the shoulder and whispered in his ear.
FAUCI: “I respectfully decline to answer…”
MORENO: “Do you know who wrote the Fifth Amendment?”
FAUCI: “I respectfully decline to answer…”
Moreno summarized the moment in disbelief.
MORENO: “So you’re invoking a right that you don’t know who wrote it or what it says. Is that correct?”
FAUCI: “On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.”
MORENO: “Wow.”
Moreno then asked Fauci to do something that required no testimony at all.
He invited Fauci to turn around and look at the people sitting behind him: people Moreno said had been shamed, silenced, or fired for refusing the vaccine or questioning the government’s COVID narrative.
MORENO: “Dr. Fauci, can you just turn around and look at the people behind you?”
Fauci remained seated and motionless.
MORENO: “You’re not willing to do that? That’s not a question. It’s not a question to your lawyers. Not a question. It’s a request.”
Fauci consulted with his attorneys and never turned around.
MORENO: “All you have to do is look up from your lawyers and look at the people who were absolutely shamed for saying what we know now to be the truth.”
“You can’t even look at them?”
Paul ended the hearing by giving Fauci one final opportunity to answer a direct question and avoid what the chairman described as an unlawful blanket refusal to testify.
PAUL: “I’m going to give you one more opportunity to comply with the law… Did you destroy any federal record or tell anyone else to?”
FAUCI: “I respectfully decline to answer…”
Paul then announced that the committee would vote the following week on certifying Fauci in contempt of Congress.
PAUL: “Because you refuse to answer, citing a privilege under the Fifth Amendment that is unsupported because of your pardon, and after being denied the right to do so, this committee has scheduled a vote next week on a resolution certifying your contempt.”
If approved, the contempt referral would be sent to the Justice Department for possible criminal prosecution. Contempt of Congress can carry up to one year in jail, while perjury can carry up to five.
Once you know that, it suddenly makes sense how Fauci acted this whole hearing. He would rather spend a year in jail than admit what he's done or perjure himself.
Faced with that choice, Fauci chose to plead the Fifth — 111 times in total.
Watch the full hearing:
Thanks for making it all the way to the end. I hope you enjoyed that recap, and I’ll be here covering every step of what happens next as the contempt proceedings against Fauci unfold.
One personal note: If my coverage has felt lighter this past year, there’s a reason. I’ve been going through a major life event — the best kind, actually. The kind that completely changes your perspective about life and becomes the reason behind everything you do.
After going through a huge learning process and figuring out how to balance my life, I’m finally ready to once again deliver news coverage at the level you remember from COVID and the 2024 election days.
Fauci’s hearing was the perfect time to make my comeback, and you can expect a lot more reports just like this one. The best reporting is still ahead. Stay tuned.
If Fauci gets away with crimes against humanity and doesn't go to prison for the rest of his life, our justice system is worthless.
He should be charged 1 count of obstruction of justice for each question that he refused to answer. That was he could served 5yrs x 111counts and get the life sentence that he deserves.