Fauci Declines GOP Subcommittee Interview, Citing Fifth Amendment

Former White House COVID-19 adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci told Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) that he will not sit for a transcribed interview with the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. In a letter from his attorneys, Fauci asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and argued that compelling his appearance would serve only to “harass or degrade” him for political purposes. Johnson had requested the interview after Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times during a hearing led by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) last month.

The Hill

Fauci’s Fifth Amendment invocation followed a hearing in which Paul’s committee voted, on party lines, to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress. Rather than seeking a full Senate vote, Paul referred the resolution directly to the Justice Department, a move his attorneys described as “legally questionable” and invalid. Paul has maintained that the amendment does not apply because former President Biden issued a pre-emptive pardon for Fauci.

The Hill

Johnson and Paul are pursuing an investigation they say aims to expose a cover-up over the pandemic’s origins. The senators have released selected text messages from Fauci’s former government cellphone and allege that he lied about vaccine safety and misrepresented data. To date, they have not presented concrete evidence supporting those allegations.

The Hill

Fauci’s lawyers, David Schertler and Danny Onorato, wrote that the Senate’s past practice respects a witness’s Fifth Amendment rights once invoked, and therefore Fauci should not be summoned again. The letter also criticized the committee’s “party-line” contempt vote and the referral to the Justice Department as an attempt to bypass established congressional procedure.

The Hill

• “The American people deserve answers to legitimate questions regarding our miserably failed response to COVID-19. Some of those questions can only be answered by Dr. Fauci,” — Sen. Ron Johnson

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