Fauci pleads Fifth Amendment on COVID-19 origins, lawyer thrown out of tense hearing

Washington: Republicans have slammed former US chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci after he refused to answer questions about the origins of COVID-19 during a heated congressional hearing, citing his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself. Fauci, an infectious diseases expert who helped steer the US through the pandemic – first under Donald Trump and then under Joe Biden – accused Republican committee chairman Rand Paul of having an “unhinged obsession” with him. “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 behind bars,” Fauci told the Senate.

“Although it pays me to do so ... under the advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions.” Republican lawmakers still attempted to question Fauci over the ensuing several hours, prompting him to plead the Fifth each time.

The high-profile hearing came just two days after Paul – Fauci’s long-time congressional nemesis – released more than 1000 pages from the doctor’s personal diary during the pandemic. Among other things, the entries painted a picture of a health bureaucrat who, having become the public face of the pandemic, meticulously tracked his media appearances and how he was being portrayed in various TV, newspaper and magazine profiles. “The situation with my national and international fame is explosive and really unimaginable,” he wrote after a “very flattering” front-page piece about him in The Washington Post in May 2020.

“It is not hyoperbole [sic] to say that today I am the most famous and talked about person in the country and one of the most recognizable peson [sic] in the world.” Fauci’s diary included appearances on Australia’s 60 Minutes and a discussion with the Doherty Institute’s director Sharon Lewin, who “said that I am a ‘household name’ in Australia”. In late October 2020, as Melbourne emerged from its record-breaking COVID lockdown, Fauci praised the actions of then-Victorian premier Daniel Andrews.

“The Australians had zero new infections in the entire city of Melbourne yesterday proving that pure public health measures such a mandatory mask wearing ($1000.00 fine) and avoiding crowds actually works,” Fauci wrote on October 27, 2020. The primary purpose of Paul’s committee hearing, five years after the pandemic subsided, was to interrogate Fauci about US government-funded research at a laboratory in Wuhan, China where some believe COVID-19 originated.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) for years gave grants to a New York non-profit called EcoHealth Alliance, which used some of the funds to help conduct “gain of function” research with Chinese laboratories studying coronaviruses commonly carried by bats. Gain of function research is the practice of enhancing a virus in a lab to study its potential real-world impacts. It includes general research as well as especially risky experiments.

Fauci and the NIH have long maintained that the viruses studied using EcoHealth Alliance funding were genetically distinct from the one that caused COVID-19, including in his private diary entries. At Wednesday’s hearing, Paul accused Fauci of semantics. “When you defended this research you described its benefits in the broadest terms,” he said.

“But when Congress demanded accountability, you hid behind the narrowest possible definition. You can’t have it both ways.” At one point, one of Fauci’s lawyers, David Schertler, attempted to speak from the witness table on behalf of his client, leading Paul to ultimately order his removal from the room.

“You’re disputing the proceedings. You are not recognised, sir,” Paul said. “Security, please remove him from the room.”

Some people in the gallery applauded, and Schertler was escorted outside by a security guard. Paul also threatened consequences for Fauci’s failure to answer questions. “It’s against the law to obstruct an investigation of Congress.

There will be repercussions to your refusal to testify today.” For years, the libertarian-leaning Republican senator from Kentucky has accused Fauci of lying to Congress over the NIH funding of coronavirus research, and called for him to be indicted. In his opening statement, Fauci pointed out he briefed or testified before Congress “well over 200 times” during his 38 years as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

That included multiple appearances during and after the pandemic, including “several days-long transcribed interviews, answering questions about the very issues that are now the subject of this hearing”. Fauci, who is now 85, retired at the end of 2022. Democrats defended Fauci.

Gary Peters, the top Democrat on the committee, said Wednesday’s hearing was a witch-hunt, abuse of congressional power and re-litigation of the past. “One-sided investigations designed to validate pr