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Fauci Pleads Fifth at Senate Hearing After Release of Pandemic Diary

The refusal raises questions about congressional remedies including the limits of President Biden’s 2025 preemptive pardon.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, arrives to testify before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic at the Rayburn House Office Building on June 03, 2024 in Washington, DC.
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Committee Chairman US Sen Rand Paul (R-KY) is shown on a monitor as former NIH Director Anthony Fauci (L) testifies before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on July 29, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testifies to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on July 29, 2026, in Washington, DC.

Overview

  • Dr. Anthony Fauci, who pleaded the Fifth on Wednesday, declined to answer substantive questions at a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing after being subpoenaed by Sen. Rand Paul.
  • Sen. Rand Paul released roughly 1,100 pages of Fauci’s pandemic-era diary that include a Jan. 26, 2020 entry saying the first infection appeared in early December and ‘was not connected to the market,’ and other notes showing early concern about asymptomatic transmission.
  • The hearing turned contentious when Fauci’s lawyer David Schertler tried to speak and was ordered removed from the room, and Republicans signaled they will consider follow-up actions including a possible contempt vote.
  • Fauci received a broad preemptive pardon from President Biden covering official conduct through Jan. 19, 2025, which limits federal prosecution for past acts while Republicans argue new testimony or false statements after that date could create fresh legal exposure.
  • Federal and international reviews have not reached a definitive conclusion on the virus’s origin and have found no evidence of engineering, and the clash over the diaries and the hearing underscores a partisan oversight fight that may shape future oversight, prosecutions, and scientists’ willingness to serve in government.