The former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director opened his testimony accusing Paul of an “unhinged obsession” with
Brianna Tucker at HuffPost:
Dr. Anthony Fauci opened his five minutes of testimony Wednesday at a hearing on the origins of COVID-19 by invoking the Fifth Amendment and then declining to answer any of Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) questions. “On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution,” Fauci said in replying to Paul’s questions. In his opening statement minutes earlier, Fauci said he had testified before Congress multiple times across his 38 years as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and sat for sworn hearings and dayslong interviews on the same pandemic questions now before the committee.
He added that he would invoke his Fifth Amendment rights due to what he described as Paul’s “obsession” with prosecuting him, pointing to Paul’s repeated calls for him to end up “behind bars,” Paul’s “slanderous comments,” and the senator’s recent release of his unredacted personal diary that Fauci said was intended to embarrass and intimidate him. “Any reasonable person who has followed his unhinged obsession with me would readily come to the same conclusion,” Fauci said. The hearing quickly turned contentious when, minutes into questioning, the senator called on Capitol Police to escort Fauci’s attorney David Schertler from the room for trying to explain why his client was invoking the Fifth. Paul repeatedly told him he wasn’t authorized to speak in the hearing. “Dr. Fauci has a valid Fifth Amendment privilege and he has the right to assert it. That’s what I was trying to tell the committee,” Schertler told reporters after exiting the hearing room.
Paul grew increasingly frustrated while grilling Fauci, who repeated his Fifth Amendment right and suggested there would be “repercussions” for refusing to respond to his questions. “The chairman has denied your assertion of privilege and directed you to answer, but you nonetheless refuse and stand on privilege despite the existence of the pardon,” the senator said. “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,” he added. “It’s against the law to obstruct an investigation of Congress. There will be repercussions to your refusal to testify today.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is a malignant disgrace for the way he treated an American hero in Dr. Anthony Fauci in front of the Senate Homeland Security Committee yesterday.
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Daily Kos: GOP freaks out when Fauci refuses to play their games
