Dr Anthony Fauci, one of the central figures in the United States‘ handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, appeared before a Senate committee on Wednesday but declined almost from the outset to answer questions, invoking the constitutional protection available to him.

Dr Fauci explained that he expected Republican senators to try to trip him up and find grounds to accuse him of perjury. For this reason, he repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment, the constitutional provision allowing a citizen to avoid incriminating themselves. Invoking it is not an admission of guilt, but a safeguard against pressure.

The BBC noted that the hearing had several tense moments, including when one of Dr Fauci’s lawyers tried to block persistent questioning from Senator Rand Paul, who in turn moved to have the lawyer removed from the room, and succeeded.

Senator Paul focused, among other things, on Dr Fauci’s past statements regarding the origins of the coronavirus. He accused Dr Fauci of publicly maintaining that the virus emerged naturally while privately suggesting it may have originated in a laboratory (Senator Paul supports the theory that it came from a laboratory in Wuhan, China). Although Dr Fauci had initially appeared to entertain the lab-leak theory, he ultimately expressed considerable confidence that the virus had passed naturally from animals to humans.

In the days leading up to the hearing, Republican members of the Senate had worked to shape the narrative. Senator Paul, for instance, had released 1,000 pages of Dr Fauci’s writings from the pandemic period, detailing his thinking on the virus’s origins at the time. Dr Fauci believes Senator Paul is biased against him, saying the senator had summoned him to the committee “to get something, anything” out of him, in order to make good on his public vow that he would end up “behind bars“.

Dr Fauci used his opening statement to accuse Senator Paul of an “unhinged obsession with calling for my prosecution” before announcing he would take the Fifth in response to further questions. Senator Paul responded by having Dr Fauci’s lawyer ejected from the hearing room.

Separately, US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Fox News over the weekend that authorities had spent eight months working to retrieve entries from Dr Fauci’s diary, held across 11 different government computer servers.

Dr Fauci retired in 2022. He received threats to his life both during and after the pandemic, alongside fierce criticism from Republicans over mandatory mask use and other Covid-era restrictions.

Before leaving office, former President Joe Biden granted Dr Fauci, his chief medical adviser, a preemptive pardon. “This pardon should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that any individual engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offence,” President Biden said at the time, adding that “our nation owes these public servants a debt of gratitude for their tireless commitment to our country.”