Dr. Anthony Fauci invokes his Fifth Amendment rights during a Senate hearing, saying he will not answer questions from S. Rand Paul.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., accused Dr. Anthony Fauci for using taxpayer-funded staff to push for more than $1 million in personal cash awards during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fauci declined to address these allegations, repeatedly citing the Fifth Amendment.
The exchange came during a contentious hearing Wednesday in which the former White House COVID adviser was subpoenaed by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., to appear before the Republican-led committee.
Hawley accused Fauci of directing federal workers to secure lucrative awards while millions of Americans struggled with the pandemic.
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Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., speaks in front of a plaque with a picture of Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and medical adviser to several U.S. presidents, as Fauci (not pictured) attends a U.S. congress (Reuters/Nathan Howard)
“You hired federal employees using taxpayer dollars to apply for and obtain cash prizes for you personally, cash prizes totaling over $1 million,” Hawley said. “You did all that during the pandemic, right?”
Instead of responding to Hawley’s questions, Fauci repeatedly said, “On the advice of my counsel, I respectfully decline to respond based on my Fifth Amendment rights.”
Anthony Fauci testifies under subpoena at a hearing of the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on July 29, 2026 about his role in the national response to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Reuters/Nathan Howard)
Hawley then pointed to internal emails from Fauci’s staff, including one from former chief of staff Greg Folkers about a Dan David Award nomination. Hawley said the email asked federal employees to supplement the COVID-19 section of Fauci’s nomination with language detailing his response to the pandemic.
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“We are working on this Dan David Award nomination for Fauci,” Hawley read from the email. “We need to step up the COVID part.”
Hawley claimed the Dan David Prize was worth $900,000 and alleged that Fauci used federal employees to receive it. He also accused Fauci of using government personnel and resources to seek at least eight other cash awards, including honors from the Partnership for Public Service, the Adelson Prize, the Smithsonian Institution, the National Academy of Medicine and the CDC Foundation.
“In effect, you’ve turned your employees into a full-time job application machine,” Hawley said. “They actually wrote to people and said, ‘Do you think I might qualify?'”
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Hawley also claimed that Fauci had used eight different federal employees during the administration to help with the procurement applications and questioned whether the claims were true.
Fauci again declined to answer, citing his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination, something he did more than 100 times over the course of the hearing.
A member of the U.S. Capitol Police removes David Schertler, legal counsel to Anthony Fauci, at the direction of Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Rand Paul during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington (Reuters/Nathan Howard)
Although former President Joe Biden granted the retired infectious disease expert a presidential pardon, critics argued he could still be prosecuted if he commits perjury while testifying under oath.
In his opening statement, Fauci accused Paul of being “obviously obsessed with demanding my prosecution.”
“The only conclusion I can come to is that the only reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something, anything, that might justify his repeated public assurances that I will, in his words, quote, end up behind bars, unquote,” he said.
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Hawley told FOX Business that Fauci has “no Fifth Amendment rights” as a result of his pardon.
“He got rich while people were dying,” Hawley said. “He used federal employees’ taxpayer money to apply for and obtain cash bonuses. He must answer for this.”
Fauci said he invoked the Fifth Amendment on the advice of his legal counsel, but acknowledged it was difficult for him to do so.
https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/fauci-invokes-fifth-amendment-hawley-accuses-him-using-taxpayer-money-cash-awards
