An attorney for Dr. Anthony Fauci said another appearance would serve no legislative purpose, while Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) vowed to pursue legal options.
Dr. Anthony Fauci has declined a request to appear voluntarily before a second Senate panel, days after Republicans on the Homeland Security Committee voted to hold the longtime infectious-diseases official in contempt of Congress.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, said Fauci’s attorneys notified the panel that he would not participate in a private transcribed interview concerning the federal government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In an Aug. 14 letter to Johnson obtained by The Epoch Times, attorneys David Schertler and Danny Onorato said Fauci had already answered questions “honestly and transparently” during numerous congressional appearances and “stands by all his prior testimony.”
The attorneys said Fauci had testified or briefed congressional committees more than 200 times during his 38 years as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), including a two-day transcribed interview and public hearing before a House panel in 2024.
Attorneys Cite Fifth Amendment
The letter said Fauci had already invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during a July 29 hearing before the full Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
Fauci declined to answer more than 100 questions during that hearing, prompting the committee to vote 8–5 along party lines on Aug. 6 to hold him in contempt. The resolution was then hand-delivered to the Justice Department for possible prosecution.
Schertler and Onorato accused committee Republicans of joining what they called a “years-long vindictive crusade” led by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), against Fauci.
They also argued that Paul’s referral of the contempt resolution to the Justice Department without consideration by the full Senate did not satisfy the statutory requirements for prosecution.
If the committee majority wanted a “good-faith” test of Fauci’s Fifth Amendment claim, the attorneys said, it could bring a civil action in federal court in Washington seeking to compel his testimony.
The letter said Fauci would again invoke the Fifth Amendment if required to appear before Johnson’s subcommittee. The attorneys further argued that any subpoena compelling another appearance would lack a legislative purpose and would serve only to “impermissibly harass or degrade Dr. Fauci for political purposes.”
They also said Fauci and members of his family had faced harassment and death threats since the July 29 hearing.
“Based on all these facts, we must respectfully decline your invitation that Dr. Fauci participate in a voluntary transcribed interview,” the attorneys wrote.
The Epoch Times contacted Schertler for additional comment, including whether Fauci would comply if Johnson issued a separate subpoena compelling his appearance, but did not receive a response by publication time.
By Tom Ozimek
