Anthony Fauci hearing: Rand Paul tears into doctor over alleged gain of function testing: ‘Ask forgiveness’

Dr. Anthony Fauci’s attorney, David Schertler, told The Post in a statement minutes after he was booted from a Senate hearing that the move by Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul (R-Ky.) was “outrageous and demonstrates the completely biased and baseless nature of this proceeding.”

The Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing has continued even after Dr. Anthony Fauci took the Fifth and his personal attorney was booted by the chairman, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.)

Lawmakers of both parties have been asking questions, to which Fauci has answered each time: “On the advice of counsel, I respectfully declined to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.”

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) just had Dr. Anthony Fauci’s attorney escorted out of a hearing by Capitol Police.

Paul claimed that the attorney, David Schertler, was not authorized to speak and had been instructed to not sit at the witness table with Fauci — but he did so anyway.

“You will respect these proceedings. You were told not to sit at the table. You insist on sitting at the table and we told you you would not be recognized. You are not invited here for testimony, sir. You are being disruptive. Would you behave this way in a courtroom? No, because the judge would put you in jail. I can’t do that today. But I can have you escorted from the premises,” Paul told Schertler.

Schertler continued to speak with Paul and Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) asked for the attorney to be given an opportunity — but was denied.

“There’s a row behind you, sir. That’s where you were told to sit … and now you’re disrupting the proceedings,” added Paul. “This is the way Anthony Fauci wants to be remembered: For a lawyer not listening to the rules. That’s the way you want to be remembered, and that’s what you’re going to do.”

“You are not recognized, sir,” Paul declared. “Security, please remove him from the room.”

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WASHINGTON — Dr. Anthony Fauci has exercised his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination at least 11 times in response to questions from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) about the COVID-19 pandemic.

Once the Fifth Amendment is invoked, Fauci must answer all questions the same way or he risks being held in contempt of Congress.

While some committee chairmen quickly adjourn hearings once it is clear a lone witness will plead with Fifth, it appears Paul will make Fauci sit and answer all his questions the same way.

Dr. Anthony Fauci pleaded the Fifth Amendment at the start of his Wednesday hearing, ripping Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) for “unhinged” remarks and claiming the only purpose of the Homeland Security Committee’s investigation was to put him “behind bars.”

“Given Senator 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, ‘behind bars,'” said Fauci.

“Any reasonable person who has followed his unhinged obsession with me would readily come to the same conclusion. Therefore, 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, under the advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions.”

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Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, lashed out at his colleague Rand Paul for holding what Peters called a “biased” hearing with Dr. Anthony Fauci.

“This hearing appears to be a culmination of months of biased and selected efforts by the majority, under the guise of a committee investigation, to basically legitimize a predetermined conclusion that was reached years ago,” Peters said in an opening statement.

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“In 2021, the chairman has called for today’s witness to be fired, to be arrested, accused him of leading coverups and conspiracies,” Peters added. “He has even featured the witness prominently in fundraising emails and on the cover of his book. He has also called for the cancellation of the witnesses security detail — despite the fact the witness and his family have received numerous credible death threats.”

Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul (R-Ky.) wrapped up his opening statement by addressing a sweeping pardon issued by former President Joe Biden to the health official minutes before leaving office.

“A pardon may protect a person from criminal prosecution, but it doesn’t rewrite history. It does not erase documents. It does not convert a misleading statement into a truthful one,” Paul said.

“And it does not prevent Congress from establishing what happened. There will be another pandemic, there will be another crisis, and there will again be officials who insist that uncertainty must be hidden for the public’s own good.”

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said that Dr. Anthony Fauci and his personal assistant deleted federal records related to the possible origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It is a crime to destroy federal records,” said Paul. “Yet our investigation reveals your assistant diligently reported that she deleted tons of emails in 2024. You testified that you did not delete federal records. Who’s telling the truth? You or your assistant?”

“The committee has obtained repeated instructions, from you, telling federal officials to delete communications,” added the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee. “On February 2nd, 2020, one day after [a conference call on COVID-19 origins], you told [then-NIH Director Dr.] Francis Collins, ‘Please delete this email after you read it.'”

Fauci is appearing before the panel pursuant to a subpoena.

Sen. Rand Paul faulted Dr. Anthony Fauci for the loss of public trust in science due to his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It is secrecy that destroys trust. It is arrogance that destroys trust. It is censorship that destroys trust, and it is the refusal to admit error that destroys trust,” said Paul said (R-Ky.)

“That loss of trust may be your most damaging legacy. Trust can’t be ordered. It has to be earned. No scientist is above scrutiny.”

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) tore into Dr. Anthony Fauci during his opening statement, imploring him to “come clean” and deliver an “apology” to Americans for his handling of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I hope today Dr. Fauci will come clean, admit it was a mistake to fund dangerous research in China, admit that the risk of this dangerous research exceeded any possible benefits, ask forgiveness and pledge to help our government devise safeguards,” Paul said in an opening statement, “so a man-made epidemic never happens again.”

Fauci has consistently denied a lab accident led to the COVID pandemic, arguing in favor of a natural spillover from animals to humans.

He’s also denied that his agency, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), funded any so-called “gain of function” research in China that can increase the transmissibility and infectiousness of viruses.

Fauci has also denied responsibility for COVID lockdown policies that forced kids out of school classrooms and shuttered businesses.

Paul noted in his opening remarks that Fauci’s diary entries produced by his committee show him repeatedly saying “one thing in public and another in private” about the origins of SARS-CoV-2, COVID mandates and other policies.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has gaveled in the hearing with former NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose political rise largely stems from his resistance to heavy-handed COVID-19 restrictions, dismissed the upcoming Senate hearing with Dr. Anthony Fauci as a “typical performative DC spectacle.”

“[I]t will generate viral clips but ultimately will likely not lead to any real accountability,” he predicted on X.

“While Fauci’s diaries are generating merited criticism, they haven’t really told us anything we haven’t known for years about the failures of the elites during Covid.”

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