Dr. Anthony Fauci used his opening statement at a Senate hearing led by Republicans on Wednesday to accuse Senator Rand Paul of misusing Congress’s investigative powers in a long effort to get him sent to prison.He then chose not to answer questions, following the advice of his lawyers and invoking the Fifth Amendment.
Dr.Fauci has worked at the National Institutes of Health for over 54 years and has testified before Congress many times throughout his career.He said he had already answered questions under oath for several days about how the government handled the COVID-19 pandemic.
He argued that the hearing wasn’t about proper oversight.
“Because Senator Paul clearly wants to call for my prosecution, his repeated harmful comments about me, and recently releasing my personal diary without redaction to embarrass and intimidate me, the only conclusion I can reach is that the only reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something, anything, that would support his public claims that I end up, in his words, ‘behind bars.’ “
Dr.
Fauci called Paul’s campaign against him an “unhinged obsession” and said that any reasonable person would come to the same conclusion.
Only after that, he explained why he would not answer Paul’s questions.
“Although it hurts me to do so because of my respect for the legislative branch and my long record of working with Congress, under the advice of my attorneys, I will not answer your questions.”
Senator Paul has spent years accusing Dr.
Fauci of misleading Congress about coronavirus research funded by the National Institutes of Health connected to Wuhan, China.He has also repeatedly argued that Fauci should be criminally charged.
Before the hearing, the Kentucky Republican released more than 1,000 pages of Fauci’s personal records, including an unredacted diary.
Republicans also argued that any false statements Fauci made during the hearing wouldn’t be protected by the preemptive pardon President Joe Biden gave him before leaving office.
Dr.
Fauci’s statement made it clear that he didn’t think the hearing was about reviewing the pandemic.It was about reviewing him.He accused Paul of using his position as chairman to carry out a long campaign against him.
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