In his opening statement to the Senate committee on Wednesday, Fauci accused Paul of having an “obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution.”

“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. 

“Although it pains me to do so because of the respect that I have for the legislative branch of government and my decades-long record of cooperating with Congress,” he said, “under the advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions.”

Shortly before former President Joe Biden left office, in January 2025, he preemptively pardoned Fauci. Biden said he was issuing the pardon to shield Fauci from “politically motivated prosecutions.”