As Ed wrote, Anthony Fauci did the only thing he could do to avoid going to jail: invoke his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent in the face of questions that would reveal that he and people around him committed crimes, lied to the American people, pushed policies that killed people, ruined lives, interfered in domestic politics, profited off of mass death, and conspired to hide the fact that he likely funded the creation of COVID.
🔥Sen. Rand Paul SKEWERS Fauci as he concludes his opening remarks:
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) July 29, 2026
"You are here today under duress. You are here today because of the court ordering it. President Biden issued you a sweeping parting, extending back to 2014 — the same pardon he gave to his son, Hunter.
A… pic.twitter.com/bpTEf7DYbW
🔥Sen. Rand Paul SKEWERS Fauci as he concludes his opening remarks:
"You are here today under duress. You are here today because of the court ordering it. President Biden issued you a sweeping parting, extending back to 2014 — the same pardon he gave to his son, Hunter.
A pardon may protect a person from criminal prosecution, but IT DOES NOT REWRITE HISTORY. It does not erase documents. It does not convert a misleading statement into a truthful one. 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 that insist uncertainty must be hidden for the public's own good. They will demand obedience. They will invoke science. 'I am the science!' as though it were a commandment. They will argue that government officials cannot be questioned, because questioning them would undermine public trust. They have it backwards.
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. 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. No government official is beyond accountability. And no public servant has the right to treat suffering of millions of Americans as a footnote to his preferred version of history."
The list of crimes against humanity one could compile and lay at Fauci's feet is too long to enumerate. The fact that the Democrats on the committee and most of the Pravda Media are still running cover for him is enough to make me ill whenever I think about it.
Not that I am surprised, I suppose. But somehow I keep on expecting that at least a few of these people have a conscience. I'll never learn, will I?
Dr. Anthony Fauci announces he will be pleading the 5th to every question Congress has:
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 29, 2026
“Although it pains me to do so…I will invoke my right under the 5th Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions." pic.twitter.com/cQAHER3f23
I don't know all the legal ins and outs of Fauci's right to invoke the Fifth Amendment in this case, since he was granted a plenary pardon by Biden before he left office. The Fifth Amendment protection is there to protect against incriminating oneself in a criminal case, and by invoking the Fifth Amendment right to self-incrimination, Fauci seems to suggest that he would otherwise commit perjury in today's hearing.
Pleading the 5th is tricky, legally, because Fauci is pardoned for all pre-2025 conduct — fear of a future perjury trap is a lot to hang a blanket assertion of 5th Amendment privilege on. And it also opens him up to being held in contempt and prosecuted on that basis. https://t.co/EpRuAm5l0s
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) July 29, 2026
Some lawyers argue that this is a thin reed on which to base his assertion of an unquestioned right. He refuses to testify about things for which he can no longer be prosecuted, but that is a question for lawyers, who may be required to answer it should Paul and the committee charge Fauci with Contempt of Congress for refusing to testify.
Pleading the 5th is tricky, legally, because Fauci is pardoned for all pre-2025 conduct — fear of a future perjury trap is a lot to hang a blanket assertion of 5th Amendment privilege on. And it also opens him up to being held in contempt and prosecuted on that basis. https://t.co/EpRuAm5l0s
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) July 29, 2026
STONEWALLING: After warning Dr. Fauci of legal repercussions for withholding testimony, @SenRandPaul removes one of Dr. Fauci’s lawyers for disrupting his hearing. pic.twitter.com/2vHoy7W81I
— Senate Republicans (@SenateGOP) July 29, 2026
Fauci is of course right to be worried. If anyone bothers to read his diary entries and compare them with his public statements, especially to Congress, it is clear that he is both a liar and a perjurer, given that he made many false statements to Congress under oath when he was NIAID Director. That's why he violated the rules of the hearing and invited his counsel to sit with him, and why his counsel yelled at the hearing and kept interrupting it.
🚨 BREAKING: Sen. Rand Paul just had Capitol Police EJECT Anthony Fauci's attorney from the building after he REFUSED to stop screaming during the hearing
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) July 29, 2026
Lock this guy up too.
This is one big Fauci crime syndicate. pic.twitter.com/D8ibme62bB
In many ways, the most gut-churning performances today have been from the Democrats on the committee, and from the media people like Brian Stelter who will defend Fauci until the day they die. Fauci, at least, has the excuse that he is trying to save his skin, just as he has been trying to do since COVID escaped the Wuhan lab. He is a small man with a big ego, and his reputation will be permanently stained in the eyes of any sane person.
But the Democrats, even today, are continuing to reject their duties to the American people, to history, and to our future ability to address pressing public health issues for little more than slight political advantage. They can't admit that Ron DeSantis, Rand Paul, and all the people they worked with mightily to slander and censor were right.
“We see he’s a liar,” says @MarkHalperin about Anthony Fauci. “We see he’s not on the up and up. And then the media, literally to this moment, is still canonizing him… There’s something mentally wrong with someone who lies about public health and whose desire to be famous is… pic.twitter.com/KyvgxhI82N
— 2WAY (@2waytvapp) July 29, 2026
“We see he’s a liar,” says @MarkHalperin about Anthony Fauci. “We see he’s not on the up and up. And then the media, literally to this moment, is still canonizing him… There’s something mentally wrong with someone who lies about public health and whose desire to be famous is that strong.”
Anthony Fauci, obviously, should end his life in jail. Unfortunately, we all knew that would not happen. He is no longer in a position to do any more damage, thank God, but his enablers in politics and in Pravda continue to wreak havoc on our polity. Paul's hearing should, at least, help lay the groundwork for that.
Am I confident that any of those people will pay a price? Not at all, except insofar as we can gradually erode the faith in the Establishment that the few people who aren't themselves determined to ignore facts have. Trust in media has, in fact, eroded over time, but until heads roll we will never be able to rebuild trust.
The minority is still defending Fauci. They hate the fact that he is being investigated, and it shows in their refusal to participate in this investigation throughout the years. pic.twitter.com/OKSJji8FI7
— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) July 29, 2026
And such trust really is necessary for a healthy polity. We need a functional public health infrastructure. We need a media that functions at a bare level of competence. People should not have to do deep research into every subject of consequence before they make a move; societies depend on a division of labor, and when the people who are supposed to fill the functions as important as these are untrustworthy, society at best becomes grossly inefficient, and more likely just breaks down.
Sure, Anthony Fauci was bad, but, without him, we’d never have this… pic.twitter.com/CHdMjMFv1G
— Siraj Hashmi (@SirajAHashmi) July 29, 2026
Fauci's diary revealed the extent to which our media willingly corrupted itself, and it continues to do so. Fauci would never have become so powerful without their aid, and they are, in their own way, pleading the Fifth by largely ignoring this hearing and Fauci's diary, spinning all the information they must report, slandering Rand Paul and the Republicans, and continuing to elevate themselves as tribunes of the people.
...Fauci's calculus is that his allies in the media will cover and excuse his invocation while he avoids having to address the contradictions from his own diary with what he has previously said.
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) July 29, 2026
The whole spectacle is shameful, and if we cannot get justice through prosecution, at least we can impose a sentence that Fauci will feel almost as deeply: shame. The man is a narcissist who at times elevated his dinners and meetings with celebrities to a higher level of importance than the deaths of Americans.
He needs to be humiliated. Every day.
Senator Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) to Dr. Fauci:
— Catherine Herridge (@C__Herridge) July 29, 2026
"Who the F**! do you think you are?"
"...your 50 year career ends in total and complete disgrace"
"Will you apologize to the people you harmed through your actions, do you have the dignity to say you are sorry?"
Fauci: Asserts His… pic.twitter.com/4mbkk7xG4e
We should all wear T-shirts with his photo and the caption: 'I Plead the Fifth'
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