Dr. Anthony Fauci repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment during a heated Senate hearing Wednesday examining the origins of COVID-19, federal funding for risky coronavirus research and the handling of pandemic-era government records. The former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director refused to answer dozens of questions from Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul.

Paul has spent years investigating whether federal funding passed through EcoHealth Alliance to the Wuhan Institute of Virology and supported research that increased the capabilities of bat coronaviruses. Fauci has consistently denied that the work met the relevant definition of gain-of-function research or that he misled Congress. The precise origin of COVID-19 remains unresolved.

The investigation has increasingly focused on whether officials concealed or destroyed federal records connected to the pandemic and the origins debate. David Morens, a longtime senior adviser in Fauci’s agency, was indicted earlier this year on charges related to allegedly concealing, destroying and falsifying government records. Fauci has not been charged in that case.

Fauci said he believed Paul had called him before the committee to obtain statements that could support a prosecution. He accused the senator of an “obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution” and said Paul wanted him “behind bars.” Fauci then repeatedly responded: “On the advice of counsel, I respectfully declined to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.”

Paul argued that former President Joe Biden’s broad 2025 pardon of Fauci should remove any legal exposure involving his earlier government service. He warned that there would be “repercussions” for Fauci’s refusal to testify. The hearing became more confrontational when Paul ordered security to remove Fauci attorney David Schertler after he repeatedly interrupted the proceedings.