Fauci stonewalls Congress as Sen. Paul details his role in Wuhan lab funding
By isabelle // 2026-07-30
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  • Senator Rand Paul accused Dr. Anthony Fauci of funding dangerous gain-of-function research in Wuhan that may have caused COVID-19.
  • Fauci refused to answer questions, invoking the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times during the hearing.
  • Paul cited deleted emails and a rejected research proposal as evidence of deception by Fauci.
  • The Senate committee will vote next week on holding Fauci in contempt of Congress.
  • Florida’s attorney general announced a separate state-level investigation into Fauci.
In a blistering congressional hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Rand Paul accused Dr. Anthony Fauci of funding dangerous gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China, that may have spawned the COVID-19 pandemic, then lying about it to the American people for years. The Kentucky Republican, chairing the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, delivered opening remarks that painted Fauci as a public servant who privately doubted COVID-19's natural origin while publicly dismissing lab-leak theories, all while his agency funded the very experiments now under suspicion. Fauci, under subpoena and testifying after President Joe Biden issued him a broad pardon covering conduct dating back to 2014, refused to answer questions, invoking the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times during the roughly three-hour hearing.

Paul says Fauci hid his own doubts from the public

Paul's 13-minute opening statement laid out what he described as a pattern of deception spanning decades. The senator cited Fauci's involvement in the "Proximal Origin" paper, which Fauci publicly cited from the White House podium as evidence the virus could not have been engineered, while privately offering editorial comments on the manuscript before publication. "The authors of 'The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2' privately had serious doubts about a natural origin," Paul said. "Within days, though, they flipped, and they all wrote in 'Proximal Origin' that the virus was almost certainly not a laboratory construct." Paul noted that Fauci did not disclose his role in the paper's development when citing it publicly. He also referenced emails showing Fauci told then-NIH Director Francis Collins to "please delete this email after you read it" on Feb. 2, 2020 — one day after scientists raised concerns about a possible lab origin. "You could not hide that your agency had funded the Wuhan research or your long history of defending gain-of-function research," Paul said. "The only alternative left was to argue that COVID-19 did not originate in the Wuhan lab."

Deleted records and a disputed research proposal

The hearing also focused on what Paul called the destruction of federal records. Paul cited testimony from Fauci's former assistant, who he said "diligently reported that she deleted tons of emails." "Your conduct concerning federal records raises further questions. It is a crime to destroy federal records," Paul said. Paul pointed to the DEFUSE proposal submitted in 2018 by EcoHealth Alliance, Ralph Baric and Chinese virologist Shi Zhengli, which proposed inserting a furin cleavage site into coronaviruses. DARPA rejected it as too dangerous. Yet when COVID-19 was sequenced in January 2020, scientists discovered the virus contained a novel furin cleavage site. "This was either an extraordinary coincidence or a smoking gun, evidence that the Chinese had created COVID-19," Paul said. "It made the laboratory-origin question more legitimate and it made your categorical public denials indefensible."

Fallout includes contempt vote and a separate state probe

Fauci's attorney, David Schertler, was ejected from the hearing after attempting to intervene when Paul suggested Fauci would face consequences for refusing to answer questions. "A pardon may protect a person from criminal prosecution, [it] doesn't rewrite history," Paul said. "It does not erase documents. It does not convert a misleading statement into a truthful one. And it does not prevent Congress from establishing what happened." Paul announced the committee will vote next week on whether to hold Fauci in contempt. Separately, legal experts noted that Biden's pardon does not shield Fauci from potential state-level charges — a distinction underscored when Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced his office is launching its own investigation into Fauci. Sources for this article include: ChildrensHealthDefense.org APNews.com ChildrensHealthDefense.org ChildrensHealthDefense.org
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