Former White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during a Republican-led Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on Wednesday, refusing to answer questions related to the federal response to COVID-19, research funding and the origins of the coronavirus. The hearing, chaired by Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, marked Fauci's latest appearance before Congress after years of investigations into pandemic-era decision-making. Paul said the committee would pursue a vote to hold Fauci in contempt following his refusal to testify, while Democrats on the panel argued that Fauci was exercising a constitutional protection available to any witness.

Fauci, who retired from government service after leading the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for nearly four decades, said through an opening statement that he was invoking the Fifth Amendment on the advice of his attorneys. His appearance came days after Paul publicly released pandemic-era diary entries written by Fauci, arguing they were relevant to the committee's investigation. Republicans continued to question Fauci over previous congressional testimony, National Institutes of Health funding connected to coronavirus research and competing theories about the virus's origin, while Fauci has consistently denied misleading Congress and has maintained that decisions made during the pandemic were based on the scientific evidence available at the time. U.S. intelligence agencies have issued differing assessments over whether the virus emerged naturally or from a laboratory incident, with no definitive conclusion reached.