Dr. Anthony Fauci returned to Capitol Hill Wednesday morning, and the moment he began reading his opening statement, cameras caught something viewers could not miss.
His hand appeared to shake visibly over the papers in front of him as he announced that he would invoke the Fifth Amendment and refuse to answer the committee’s questions.
Watch the opening statement for yourself:
This was not an ordinary appearance. Fauci had been subpoenaed to testify before a Senate panel examining the origins of COVID-19 and the federal government’s response to the pandemic.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee scheduled the July 29 hearing under the title “Testimony of Anthony Fauci.” The official notice placed the hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building at 8:30 a.m.
Fauci was the only witness listed for the panel. The committee identified him as the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a position he held from 1984 through 2022.
The hearing put the former face of the federal COVID response directly before the Senate committee investigating the pandemic’s origins and the government’s conduct. Instead of answering senators’ questions, Fauci said he would remain silent on the advice of his attorneys.
It was a full committee hearing, placing Fauci’s testimony before members from both parties and into the official Senate record.
Axios reported that Fauci accused Paul of having an “unhinged obsession” with prosecuting him. He argued that the hearing was designed to get him to say something that could put him in legal jeopardy.
Paul warned Fauci there would be repercussions for refusing to testify. The chairman questioned him about federal funding connected to research in China and gain-of-function work, while Fauci repeatedly declined to answer.
Sen. Ron Johnson said it would be nearly impossible for Fauci to answer truthfully without exposing his own conduct. Paul also ordered Fauci’s attorney removed from the room after the lawyer attempted to intervene.
Sen. Ron Johnson then displayed a chart of adverse-event reports and pressed the point that federal officials had warned Americans away from ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine while serious reports accumulated around other COVID-era treatments and vaccines.
The figures shown during the hearing came from reporting systems that collect adverse events and do not, by themselves, establish that a drug or vaccine caused each reported injury or death. Johnson’s challenge was about the starkly different way federal officials and regulators publicly treated those signals.
Here is the exchange and the chart Johnson presented:
JUST IN: Sen. Ron Johnson just pulled out BOMBSHELL data in front of Dr. Fauci exposing that COVID vaccine and Remdesivir deaths were NUMEROUS yet IGNORED, while Fauci fearmongered against Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine
COVID VACCINES: 1.67 MILLION adverse events, 39K… pic.twitter.com/xpzirywup5
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) July 29, 2026
Fauci’s decision to take the Fifth also opened a new legal and political fight over the sweeping preemptive pardon former President Joe Biden issued before leaving office.
Independent journalist Catherine Herridge reported that a former senior Justice Department prosecutor described three potential paths for challenging the pardon. They included bringing a charge that would force a court to rule on the pardon, compelling testimony through Congress on the theory that the pardon removes a reasonable fear of self-incrimination, or securing cooperation from someone inside Fauci’s former circle.
Herridge stressed that none of those paths would be quick or easy. She also pointed to the federal case against former Fauci adviser Dr. David Morens, who has pleaded not guilty to charges including conspiracy, obstruction, and destruction or alteration of federal records.
Her full breakdown of the legal terrain is below:
For years, Fauci was treated by Washington and the corporate media as though questioning him meant questioning science itself. On Wednesday, when the questions finally arrived under subpoena, he would not answer them.
The video, the Fifth Amendment invocation, and the warning from Chairman Paul now speak louder than another round of carefully managed talking points ever could.
This is a Guest Post from our friends over at 100 Percent Fed Up. View the original article here.
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[ H/T WLT Report ]
