// BBC WORLD NEWS — MONDO
Anthony Fauci refuses to answer questions during US Senate hearing about Covid origins
Fauci invokes Fifth Amendment in showdown with Republican lawmakers
Former top US health official Anthony Fauci refused to answer questions at a US Senate hearing about the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic, saying he feared Republican lawmakers would try to use his testimony to prosecute him for perjury.
He invoked the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution, which says no individual can be "compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself".
Days before the hearing, Republican Senator Rand Paul released more than 1,000 pages of Fauci's pandemic-era diary, in which he mused about his fame and the origins of Covid.
Fauci says Paul has a grudge against him. He noted he previously testified about Covid under oath at several congressional hearings.
"Although it pains me to do so because of the respect I have for the legislative branch of government ... under the advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right under the Fifth Amendment of the constitution to refrain from answering your questions," said, Fauci, 85, the former leader of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
Taking the Fifth is not an admission of guilt - it is designed to protect individuals against coercion, mistakes, and unfair shifting of the burden to provide proof of wrongdoing.
Fauci, in his statement, said Paul's "obvious obsession" with pushing for his prosecution had led him to decline to answer questions this time.
"The only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something - anything - that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, 'behind bars,'" Fauci said.
Paul, who worked as an eye surgeon before joining Congress, continued questioning Fauci despite his refusal to answer. He repeatedly invited Fauci to "apologise" and said the committee would vote next week on a resolution holding Fauci in contempt of Congress.