Dr. Anthony Fauci may have believed his Fifth Amendment marathon at the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on Wednesday would shield him from prosecution, but he miscalculated.
Before he refused to answer questions from the committee, Fauci did deliver an opening statement, during which he attacked Committee Chairman Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and explained his decision not to answer any questions.
"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,'" Fauci said. "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."
And so he did, an estimated 111 times, but it won't protect him completely.
On Jan. 20, 2025, his last day in office, Biden granted Fauci a full and unconditional pardon covering any offenses he may have "committed or taken part in" tied to his government roles between Jan. 1, 2014, and Jan. 19, 2025. The broad preemptive pardon Joe Biden handed him on the way out the door covers federal charges alone, and it leaves him exposed to the state charges that may arrive sooner than his lawyers expected.
Florida wasted no time proving the point. State Attorney General James Uthmeier announced an investigation into the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) after Fauci declined to answer lawmakers' questions on Wednesday.
This makes Uthmeier the first state attorney general to formally investigate Fauci since the pandemic, and likely not the last.
But Fauci may still face federal consequences as well. During the hearing, Sen Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) informed Fauci that the Supreme Court says that he has no Fifth Amendment privileges.
"As you very well know, as the Supreme Court has been clear for a century and more, Brown v. Walker, 1896. When he has been pardoned, he may not stand upon his privilege," Hawley explained.
To that point, Chairman Paul also revealed that Fauci's refusal to testify could result in the committee voting to hold him in contempt.
"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."
Whether Senate Republicans convert the contempt vote into an actual referral remains uncertain, and anyone who has watched congressional Republicans handle accountability fights over the past decade has earned the right to skepticism.
But, clearly, Fauci's legal troubles are not over.