Fauci Declines to Answer as Senators Press on COVID Origins

Fauci Refuses To Answer

Former top US health official Anthony Fauci continued to plead ‘the fifth’ – his fifth amendment right under the constitution to remain silent and against ‘self-incrimination’ – to every single question at the COVID origins Senate hearing on Wednesday.

In one bizarre exchange, he was asked if he had a red folder in front of him – and refused to confirm that he did.

“In the red folder on your table is a copy of Section 192 of Title II of the US Code. Your counsel has been provided a copy as well. That section makes it a crime for a witness appearing under subpoena to refuse to answer any questions pertinent to the question under inquiry. Do you have that in front of you?” Senator Rand Paul asked.

“On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution,” Fauci replied.

Questions Over COVID Origins

“Let the record reflect that the witness has refused to answer whether there’s a folder in front of him based on his Fifth Amendment right,” Paul hit back.

He answered the same to questions about monkeypox and avian flu.

Earlier Fauci told them: “Given Senator [Rand] Paul’s obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution his repeated slanderous comments about me and recently his publicly releasing my unredacted personal diary aimed at embarrassing and intimidating me, 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 in his words, quote, behind bars, unquote.”

Paul has claimed that Fauci’s own writings contradict what he told the public – that COVID originated naturally – while privately believing it was a lab leak.

Senate Continues Investigation

Fauci’s diary does state initially that experts were not in ‘total agreement’ about the origins, later writing he was “almost certain that the virus evolved naturally from a species jump, even though… I keep an open mind about the possibility of a lab leak”.

Paul himself has repeatedly backed the ‘Wuhan lab leak’ theory. China has consistently rejected the lab leak theory, describing it as politically motivated.

The hearing was convened by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee as part of its investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

US Sentate Committee on Homeland Security Government Affairs