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Former chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci invoked his constitutional right against self-incrimination more than 100 times on July 29, 2026, during a hearing of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs that focused on the origins of COVID-19 and shifting public health guidance throughout the pandemic. Fauci, who is 85, told the panel that he was acting on the advice of his attorneys while expressing respect for Congress, according to a transcript of the proceedings released by the committee. Committee chairman Senator Rand Paul repeatedly pressed Fauci on past statements and invited him to apologise before announcing plans for a vote on a contempt of Congress resolution. Fauci’s attorney was removed from the room after interjecting during the session, an action the lawyer later described as outrageous.
The hearing grew contentious as Republican senators accused Fauci of concealing information about the virus’s dangers and potentially misleading Congress on its origins, charges he has previously dismissed as simply preposterous. Paul released diary entries from Fauci that showed the former official initially open to both natural spillover and laboratory leak possibilities before concluding the former was more likely, according to details shared by the committee. The senator has long promoted the lab-leak theory and suggested Fauci privately held that view while publicly leaning toward a natural origin. A pre-emptive pardon granted by then-President Joe Biden covering 2014 to 2025 offers Fauci protection for past actions but leaves open the possibility of future charges, committee members noted.
A World Health Organization Scientific Advisory Group report issued in June 2025 found that the weight of available evidence suggests zoonotic spillover as the most likely origin, either directly from bats or via an intermediate host, while keeping all hypotheses including a laboratory incident on the table. In contrast, a White House assessment of COVID-19 origins highlighted biological features of the virus not commonly found in nature and pointed to a single introduction event inconsistent with typical zoonotic patterns seen in prior outbreaks. A study published in the journal Cell in 2026 by virologist Joel Wertheim and colleagues at the University of California San Diego compared evolutionary patterns and determined that SARS-CoV-2 mutations aligned with those of naturally occurring outbreaks rather than known laboratory incidents.
President Donald Trump weighed in on social media following the hearing, calling Fauci crazy and reiterating that the virus originated in a Wuhan laboratory while accusing the former official of protecting China. Trump had previously awarded Fauci a commendation in 2021 but later removed his security detail, leaving him exposed to death threats that Fauci has said intensified during the period. Florida’s Republican attorney general has announced plans to investigate Fauci, adding to the legal pressures mounting in the wake of the session.
Democrats on the committee pushed back against the proceedings, with Senator Maggie Hassan arguing that the hearing appeared designed to entrap Fauci rather than seek new information. The session forms part of broader Republican-led efforts to examine the pandemic response, including multiple prior appearances by Fauci before congressional panels. A July 2026 article in The Atlantic described a wave of indictments, subpoenas and debarments targeting scientists involved in the origins debate, framing the developments as payback amid the still-contested evidence surrounding the pandemic’s start.
The committee’s actions include potential subpoenas for additional records as Republicans continue to question decisions on masks, lockdowns and gain-of-function research funding that occurred under Fauci’s oversight at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Fauci has testified before Congress on numerous occasions since the outbreak began in late 2019, which has since been linked to more than 1.2 million deaths in the United States according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tallies. The hearing adjourned without resolution as both sides remained entrenched in their positions on accountability and scientific interpretation.
