Anthony Fauci spent 38 years telling America what to do.
Now he's begging the Fifth Amendment to save him.
Florida just opened a state investigation that Biden's pardon can't touch – and Rand Paul is flying a plane full of evidence to Tallahassee.
Fauci Took the Fifth More Than 100 Times
The hearing happened July 29 before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, chaired by Sen. Rand Paul.
Fauci walked in, gave a brief opening statement accusing Paul of an "obvious obsession," then shut his mouth for the rest of the afternoon.
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One hundred and eleven times, he read the same 24-word sentence off a card: "Under the advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions."
He said it when Sen. Rick Scott asked about his communications with David Morens and EcoHealth Alliance.
He said it when senators asked whether he used personal email accounts to dodge public-record requirements.
He said it when asked whether COVID-19 came from a Chinese lab his agency helped fund.
He said it when asked if he regretted his handling of the pandemic – the lockdowns, the school closures, the mask mandates that kept grandparents from holding their grandchildren, and the hospital rules that made Americans die alone while Fauci told you it was for your own good.
One hundred and eleven times.
Biden's Pardon Just Became Fauci's Biggest Problem
Fauci may have actually made his legal situation worse by taking the Fifth.
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Paul has argued publicly that Biden's sweeping preemptive pardon – which covered Fauci's federal conduct from January 2014 through January 2025 – eliminated any legitimate reason to plead self-incrimination.
"So there wouldn't have been any legal liability to simply telling him the truth," Paul said after the hearing.
If that argument holds, Fauci can't use the Fifth as a shield because the thing he's afraid of incriminating himself for has already been pardoned at the federal level.
That's why Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier sees an opening.
A presidential pardon covers federal crimes.
The Constitution is explicit: presidential clemency power extends only to "offenses against the United States." State crimes are beyond its reach entirely.
Uthmeier announced the investigation the same day as the hearing, and he's not treating it as exploratory.
"We're looking at any and all violations of state law here in Florida. Nothing is off the table," he said. "We'll have a team working on this 24/7."
Subpoenas could come as early as next week.
Rand Paul Is Handing Florida a Mountain of Evidence
"We're going to send a plane up to D.C. and get any file they're willing to share with us," Uthmeier said Thursday – and Paul promised him there's plenty to work with.
That haul includes more than 1,000 pages from Fauci's private pandemic diary – internal notes written on government computers that Paul says show Fauci privately acknowledged a far lower COVID death rate than the numbers he fed the American public.
Florida investigators will dig into his public statements, his pandemic guidance, his financial interests, and how he used personal devices to conduct government business outside official channels.
Florida was already primed for this fight. Sen. Ashley Moody, the state's former attorney general, used her opening remarks at the hearing to remind everyone that Florida spent the pandemic fighting Fauci's lockdown agenda in court.
"We are now called the Free State of Florida," Moody said. "Government shouldn't operate for itself. Government operates on behalf of and for the American people."
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Now Florida is operating on behalf of the people who want answers Fauci spent two hours refusing to give.
The contempt of Congress vote is scheduled for August 5. Paul is shipping files to Tallahassee.
This is a pattern, not an accident.
Biden's own doctor, Kevin O'Connor, took the Fifth at a House deposition last year when asked whether he was told to lie about Biden's cognitive decline.
Biden's COVID czar hides behind the Fifth. Biden's doctor hides behind the Fifth.
Every person who knows what actually happened in that White House needs a lawyer present before they'll say a word.
At some point you stop calling that a coincidence and start calling it a cover-up.
Fauci spent four decades building a reputation as the man who saved America.
He may end up remembered as the man who took the Fifth 111 times when America asked him what he actually did.
Sources:
- Kennedy Owens, "Sen. Rand Paul pledges 'mountain of evidence' to Florida AG in Fauci investigation," Florida Politics, July 30, 2026.
- "Florida AG James Uthmeier opens Fauci probe after Fifth Amendment plea," Fox News, July 30, 2026.
- "Rand Paul 'happy' to share information on Fauci to assist with Florida inquiry," Washington Examiner, July 30, 2026.
- "Florida AG launching investigation into Fauci after Senate hearing," The Hill, July 30, 2026.
- "Presidential Pardon Power and its Limits," FindLaw.
- "Chairman Comer Statement on Dr. O'Connor Pleading the Fifth," House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, July 9, 2025.
