Florida officials are escalating their campaign against Dr. Anthony Fauci after the former White House chief medical adviser invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times during a contentious Senate hearing.
The state’s attorney general announced a new investigation, and Gov. Ron DeSantis suggested the longtime health official could still face prosecution despite receiving a federal pardon.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced Wednesday that his office is launching an investigation into Fauci after the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases repeatedly declined to answer questions before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
“Fauci’s lack of candor to Congress is unbelievable,” Uthmeier wrote on social media. “My office is launching an investigation into Dr. Fauci. It’s past time we get the truth of what happened during COVID.”
The announcement came hours after Fauci appeared before the committee chaired by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), where he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 111 times while accusing the Kentucky Republican of using the hearing to build a criminal case against him.
Fauci Uses Attorneys to Fight Rand Paul
Appearing alongside a team of attorneys, Fauci used his opening remarks to explain why he would not participate in the committee’s questioning.
“Under the advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions,” Fauci said.
The former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases argued that Paul’s repeated calls for his prosecution, along with the recent release of his personal journals, convinced him the hearing was designed to pressure him into making statements that could later be used against him.
“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, ‘behind bars,'” Fauci told lawmakers.
He went on to describe Paul’s pursuit of him as an “unhinged obsession,” adding that despite his decades-long history of cooperating with congressional oversight, he felt he had no choice but to invoke his constitutional rights.
“Although it pains me to do so because of the respect I have for the legislative branch of government and my decades-long record of cooperating with Congress,” Fauci said, he would decline to answer questions on the advice of counsel.
Fauci also reminded the committee that congressional testimony has long been part of his public service. During nearly four decades leading NIAID, he said he testified or briefed lawmakers “well over 200 times” and had consistently demonstrated his respect for congressional oversight.
Fauci Pleads the Fifth
Despite Fauci’s refusal to respond, Paul proceeded with a series of questions about the federal government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the virus’s origins.
Fauci answered each inquiry with the same statement.
“On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution,” he repeated throughout the hearing.
Paul warned that the former health official’s silence could carry consequences.
“The committee will have to consider after this hearing what appropriate action should be taken against you for the failure to testify after being directed to do so,” Paul said. “It’s against the law to obstruct an investigation of Congress. There will be repercussions to your refusal to testify today.”
The hearing grew even more contentious after one of Fauci’s attorneys, David Schertler, attempted to address the committee without being recognized. Paul repeatedly interrupted him, insisting that only the witness was permitted to speak.
“You are not recognized. You’re not recognized. If you are unruly, you will be removed from the proceeding,” Paul warned.
When Schertler continued speaking, the senator accused him of disrupting the hearing.
“You will respect these proceedings,” Paul said before adding, “Another word and you’re gone.”
After further interruptions, Paul instructed Capitol security to escort the attorney from the hearing room.
“Please remove him from the room,” he directed Capitol security, later noting for the record that Fauci still had several other attorneys present to advise him.
Attorneys Claim Paul Is Seeking Revenge
Alongside the hearing, Fauci’s legal team said the former health official invoked the Fifth Amendment because years of attacks from Paul made further cooperation impossible.
In a statement, Schertler said Fauci had spent 54 years at the National Institutes of Health and built a long record of working with congressional investigators, including frequent testimony before both the House and Senate.
The attorney argued that Fauci’s public rebuke of Paul during a 2021 Senate hearing sparked what he described as “an intense and seemingly pathological course of retribution, revenge, and obsession with Dr. Fauci.”
Schertler accused Paul of repeatedly calling for Fauci’s prosecution, publishing his private journal and making hundreds of social media posts attacking him.
The statement also said the senator’s comments have contributed to repeated harassment and death threats against Fauci and his family.
Calling Paul’s campaign an “obsessive vendetta,” Schertler said the accusations leveled against Fauci are “false and disgraceful,” adding, “we will examine all options to hold him accountable.”
Longstanding Feud
The hearing marked the latest chapter in the years-long feud between Fauci and Paul, who have repeatedly clashed over the federal government’s pandemic response and the origins of COVID-19.
In the days leading up to Wednesday’s hearing, Paul released more than 1,100 pages of what he said were Fauci’s private journal entries covering the final years of the pandemic, along with hundreds of pages of older government records and emails.
After the hearing, Paul said he would seek a committee vote next week to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress, arguing that former President Joe Biden’s pardon eliminated any need for him to invoke the Fifth Amendment.
“We believe that with his … immunity from criminal liability, that he didn’t need to hide behind the Fifth Amendment and that maybe the Fifth Amendment doesn’t attach when you have a pardon in place,” Paul told reporters.
Florida Officials Respond
Florida Sen. Ashley Moody (R), who also sits on the committee, called Fauci’s refusal to answer questions “incredibly frustrating.”
“Everything we did to keep Washington out of our lives in Florida, which made Florida the free state, that was really on trial today, and he couldn’t answer a question because he took the Fifth every time. Very frustrating,” Moody said during an appearance on Fox News.
DeSantis echoed Paul’s criticism but argued Fauci’s legal problems may not end in Washington. The Florida governor noted that Biden’s pardon only covers potential federal offenses and said state prosecutors could still pursue charges if they determine state laws were violated.
“It would require either a state AG or local state attorney to bring a case, which would need to establish violations of state law as well as personal jurisdiction over the defendant,” DeSantis wrote on social media.
The comments from DeSantis and Uthmeier signal that Florida Republicans are now attempting to extend the legal battle beyond Congress, opening a new front in the years-long political fight over Fauci’s role during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the meantime, online users have chimed in to discuss how idiotic the proceedings seem to be.
Trump Attacks Fauci
The renewed attention surrounding Fauci also comes after Trump revived his criticism of the former health official by sharing a six-year-old video of Fauci’s ceremonial first pitch at a Washington Nationals game on Truth Social ahead of the Senate hearing.
Trump mocked the throw and referred to Fauci as a “phony,” marking another chapter in the pair’s long-running feud.
The Daily Beast noted that the criticism followed the public release of portions of Fauci’s personal journals by Sen. Paul.
Among the entries was one in which Fauci allegedly referred to Trump as an “idiot,” further highlighting the strained relationship between the two men during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Trump had once publicly praised Fauci early in the health crisis before the two increasingly clashed over the federal government’s response to the virus. The resurfaced video and diary excerpts added another layer to the political tensions surrounding Fauci’s appearance before the Senate committee.
