Dr. Anthony Fauci testifying to Senate panel on COVID origins after Sen. Rand Paul releases trove of diary entries - CBS News

What the report says

CBS News reported that Dr. Anthony Fauci appeared Wednesday before the Senate Homeland Security Committee under subpoena for a hearing on COVID-19 origins, in a session led by Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, the panel’s chair. Fauci, formerly the federal government’s leading infectious disease official, appeared days after Paul’s office released diary entries Fauci kept while helping guide the Trump and Biden administrations’ pandemic response.

According to CBS, Fauci used his opening statement to say he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in response to questions. He argued that Paul’s release of his personal diary and past public calls for his prosecution showed the hearing was aimed at eliciting a statement that could be used against him. Fauci repeatedly declined to answer questions from senators, including on gain-of-function research, vaccines, COVID-19 origins and a pardon issued by former President Joe Biden.

The hearing grew contentious. CBS reported that Paul had one of Fauci’s attorneys removed from the room after the lawyer tried to speak, while the attorney later told reporters Fauci had a valid Fifth Amendment privilege. Sen. James Lankford, an Oklahoma Republican, said Fauci had the right to invoke the Fifth, while also raising broader concerns about pandemic decisions, including effects on children’s vaccinations and learning.

Paul criticized Fauci’s refusal to answer and said the committee had scheduled a vote the following week on a resolution to hold him in contempt of Congress. The hearing underscores the continuing political and legal fights over the pandemic response and unresolved disputes in Congress over the origins of the coronavirus.