Armed with thousands of pages of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s private pandemic diaries, Senate Republicans had planned for a Wednesday hearing unlike any of their previous clashes with the former infectious disease chief.

In many ways, they got what they wished for — just not what they wanted.

Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has testified before Congress more than 250 times. But he doesn’t appear to have ever pleaded the Fifth until today.

Fauci was set to square off with committee Chairman Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who has made scrutinizing Fauci and the federal government’s response to Covid-19 one of his signature issues.

But the hearing was quickly becoming a letdown for Republicans on Wednesday. The former NIAID head repeatedly took the Fifth Amendment and refused to answer questions from both Republicans and Democrats.

Paul had entered the hearing with a new weapon: a treasure trove of diary entries from Fauci, documenting the infectious disease director’s day-to-day life throughout the course of the pandemic. (Fauci has not verified that the diary entries are correct, but he also has not disputed their authenticity.)

Follow MS NOW’s live coverage of of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s Senate testimony on the Covid-19 pandemic.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said during an appearance on Fox News that he gave the entries to Paul and his Republican colleague Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin in the lead up to the hearing.

And Johnson told MS NOW before the hearing that Fauci would have to be “very careful” about what he says during his testimony.

While Joe Biden issued a preemptive pardon to Fauci at the end of his presidency, citing concerns about “unjustified and politically motivated prosecutions” by the incoming Trump administration, that pardon would not shield Fauci from any alleged crimes committed after it was issued — including perjury before Congress.

Republicans made it clear they viewed Wednesday’s hearing through that lens. And on Monday, Paul made the threat explicitly.

“If Anthony Fauci lies before Congress on Wednesday, as he did in previous hearings, his preemptive pardon won’t cover him,” Paul wrote.

But Fauci’s decision to repeatedly invoke the Fifth Amendment — the right to remain silent and not self-incriminate — will very likely short-circuit the GOP’s plans to trap Fauci in a statement that the Department of Justice could potentially use against him.

Of course, whether the Justice Department would pursue such a case is unknown. But before the hearing, Republicans were pointing to Fauci’s diaries as potential fodder for charges if the former NIAID chief maintained his story about the origins of Covid-19.

As Republicans noted, several entries could potentially undermine Fauci’s past statements.

In one entry — dated Jan. 26, 2020 — Fauci writes that the first Covid infection was “in early December and was not connected to the market.”

“Now we know the market was not the source, it was the amplifier,” Fauci wrote.

On social media, Paul annotated that entry. “That is January of 2020. The wet market was already off the table in his own private notes,” he wrote.

Paul has also pointed to a conference call with a dozen scientists, documented by Fauci on Feb. 1, 2020, during which the participants debated whether the virus was naturally occurring or the result of “deliberate insertion.” There was no consensus, according to Fauci’s purported retelling.

Beyond the questions about the virus origin itself, Republicans are still using the hearing to embarrass Fauci and cast him as obsessed with himself.

Throughout the diary entries, Fauci documents his daily appearances on television and interviews with the press.

He touts calls with high-profile individuals, including one with Barbra Streisand, who asked him about the difference between the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. According to the diaries, Fauci also showed Streisand his Amazon Alexa and had it play her music.

On May 13, 2020, Fauci also recounts an Instagram conversation with the “absolutely fabulous” Julia Roberts.

“For better or worse, I am becoming an international celebrity,” Fauci wrote on March 10, 2020. “Calls from all over the world.”

During the hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., attacked Fauci for repeatedly giving interviews to the press but being unable to answer questions before the committee.

“You wanted to be on TV,” Hawley said. “You wanted to be the sun god of science. You wanted to be the guy who was in charge of it all.”

“You could sit for InStyle magazine, but you can’t answer questions for the American people,” Hawley continued.

Ahead of the hearing, Johnson told MS NOW that Fauci was “very happy to talk about how famous he became.”

“I hope he ends up being one of the most infamous villains in history,” Johnson said.

Paul had also posted AI-generated images of Fauci as a teenage girl, mockingly claiming the entries show what Fauci looked like “every night” when he wrote “how great he is in his diary.”

Fauci’s legal team did not respond to MS NOW’s request for comment.

But beyond ridiculing Fauci’s amusement with his new celebrity and documenting how much money Fauci has made, Republicans weren’t able to make new ground during the hearings on what Fauci knew during the early days of the outbreak and whether the virus originated in a laboratory.

Paul has long argued that Fauci helped cover up evidence backing the lab leak theory, and he has alleged that NIAID-backed studies in China helped lead to the global outbreak — a claim Fauci has rejected. 

“Fauci and his team destroyed public trust in the CDC and our public health institutions,” Paul posted on X ahead of the hearing.

“Accountability is long overdue,” he added.

In that quest for accountability, Paul subpoenaed Fauci last month, saying the former official declined to appear voluntarily.

Meanwhile, Senate Democrats have long defended Fauci and did so again Wednesday.

Democrats told MS NOW that Wednesday’s hearing was simply the latest chapter in Paul’s “vendetta against Fauci,” as Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., put it this week.

“He seems to be almost obsessed,” Blumenthal said of Paul.

And Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., accused Paul and Republicans of doing “whatever they can to appease a very small base of this country that’s still living in Covid times.”

Fauci, who spent roughly four decades leading the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases before leaving government at the end of 2022, was long praised by lawmakers in both parties for his work combating HIV/AIDS in the United States and abroad.

When Covid-19 began to spread across the country, Fauci became a regular presence alongside Trump. He later disagreed publicly with the White House, particularly as Trump questioned masking guidance and pushed to reopen the country.

As the pandemic wore on, Fauci became a polarizing figure on the political right, with critics blaming him for policies including prolonged school closures.

When it comes to Wednesday’s hearing, Gallego said he is “sure” Republicans are hoping to catch Fauci in a lie — potentially exposing him to legal jeopardy outside the scope of that pardon.

But with Fauci invoking the 5th, there isn’t much Republicans or Trump’s DOJ can do.

Lisa Rubin contributed to this report.

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