COVID-19

At Senate Hearing, Fauci Takes the Fifth To Avoid Accounting for Inconsistent Statements About a Lab Leak

Diary entries show the former public health official acknowledged that U.S.-supported researchers were conducting gain-of-function research in Wuhan that could have caused the pandemic.

Christian Britschgi | 7.29.2026 11:50 AM

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At a hearing of the Senate's Homeland Security and Government Committee today, Anthony Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment to avoid answering questions about gain-of-function research his former agency, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), funded in Wuhan, China, and the role that research might have played in starting the pandemic. 

"I believed in and respect the value of legitimate congressional oversight," said Fauci, who had been subpoenaed to appear before the committee that's chaired by Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.), in a brief opening statement. 

"Given Sen. 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," Fauci said that he would refuse to answer the committee's questions. 

Even after Paul directed Fauci to answer the committee's questions, noting that he'd received a pardon from President Joe Biden covering his conduct going back to 2014, when the U.S. government first paused funding of gain-of-function research, Fauci repeated the invocation of his Fifth Amendment right to not answer questions. 

When Fauci's attorney attempted to address the committee on behalf of his client, Paul said he was not a recognized witness, and eventually ordered him removed from the hearing room. 

Gain-of-function research refers to experiments in which viruses are manipulated in laboratory settings to become more virulent. Fauci has long been a proponent of this controversial research, which some scientists consider dangerous for its potential to create new pandemic viruses. 

While under Fauci's leadership, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) issued multiple grants to researchers working at the Wuhan Institute of Virology to support their work making novel coronaviruses that........

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