Dr. Anthony Fauci is scheduled to testify before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee next Wednesday after being subpoenaed by Committee Chairman Sen. Rand Paul, who said he intends to question the former government health official about the origins of COVID-19 and U.S.-funded research in China.

Paul, a Kentucky Republican, has spent years accusing Fauci of concealing the United States’ involvement in research conducted at a laboratory in Wuhan, China. The senator has argued that the work contributed to the creation of the virus that ultimately sparked the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking Thursday during an appearance on Fox Business, Paul said he has little confidence that Fauci will provide truthful testimony.

“I expect he will not tell the truth,” Paul said. “I don’t expect him to be honest, he hasn’t been honest in the last six years.”

The upcoming hearing follows years of public confrontations between the two men during Senate hearings held while Fauci was leading the federal government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic during the Biden administration.

Fauci stepped down from government service in 2022 and has consistently rejected allegations made by Paul and other Republican lawmakers regarding his role in funding virus research or misleading the public.

Paul has maintained, without presenting conclusive evidence, that COVID-19 originated in a Chinese laboratory before escaping into the public. He has also accused Fauci and other senior officials of working to convince Americans that the lab-leak theory was merely a conspiracy theory. The Kentucky senator has further argued that Fauci bears responsibility for the tens of millions of deaths attributed to COVID-19 worldwide.

Before leaving office, President Joe Biden issued a preemptive pardon for Fauci and several other senior officials, citing concerns that they could face investigations or prosecution by the Trump administration.

Paul has also repeatedly called for Fauci to be indicted, alleging that he lied to Congress under oath regarding gain-of-function research funded by the U.S. government.

Many infectious disease experts, however, have disputed those claims, saying the research supported by the National Institutes of Health was not capable of causing the COVID-19 pandemic.

{Matzav.com}