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Fauci Pleads the Fifth 70+ Times: Rand Paul Schedules Contempt Vote | Jul 29, 2026

Published: July 29, 2026
Network: Worldview Tube (Washington Report)
Analysis: Conservative Caucus President Jim Pfaff

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Anthony Fauci returned to the Senate on July 29, 2026, under subpoena — and refused to testify. To question after question, Fauci pleads the Fifth: over 70, 80 times by the count of Worldview Tube’s Washington Report, which played the hearing clips as Jim Pfaff, President of The Conservative Caucus, broke down what the refusals mean. Senator Rand Paul has scheduled a committee vote on a resolution to certify contempt. And Pfaff’s argument goes one step further: Fauci is silent because the autopen-signed Biden pardon protecting him will not survive a courtroom.

Topics Covered

• Fauci Pleads the Fifth — and Rand Paul Moves to Contempt
• Capitol Police Remove Fauci’s Attorney
• “Bureaucrats Who Recognize the Kind of Power That They Have”
• The Autopen Pardon Problem
• Fetterman’s Lab-Leak Regret — and Missiles Over Jordan
• Key Takeaways

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Fauci Pleads the Fifth — and Rand Paul Moves to Contempt

The questions were specific. Was Fauci ever made aware of gain-of-function research on monkeypox at the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center at Fort Detrick? Did the CIA ever transfer funds to NIH under an interagency agreement? Did he destroy any federal record between January 1st, 2014 and January 19th, 2025 — the exact period covered by his pardon? The answer came back the same every time: “On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.”

Senator Rand Paul rejected the privilege on the record, and he laid out exactly why it fails:

“He has cited a privilege that is unsupported because of his blanket pardon and because he waived the privilege by testifying at the start.”
— Sen. Rand Paul, at the July 29 hearing

That legal logic is the whole ballgame. The Fifth Amendment protects a witness against self-incrimination — but a blanket pardon removes criminal jeopardy for the pardoned period, so there is nothing left for the privilege to protect. Paul directed Fauci to answer. Fauci refused again. By the time Fauci refused Paul’s final question — whether he destroyed any federal record or told anyone else to — the committee’s course was set. Paul announced on X: “I have scheduled a vote next week for the HSGAC Committee to vote on a resolution to certify contempt for Dr. Anthony Fauci.”

Pfaff granted the right itself — every American under oath holds the protection against self-incrimination. His point was the record behind the refusals. Fauci’s own diaries, Pfaff said, show a man who “spent a lot of time making sure that the country got shut down”, calling political leaders across the country — Democrat leaders first, because he knew he would get compliance. Pfaff is sure Fauci talked to some Republican ones too, pointing to the horrendous lockdowns in Indiana and Ohio, both states with Republican governors.

Capitol Police Remove Fauci’s Attorney

The hearing’s other flashpoint came when Fauci’s attorney sat at the witness table against instructions, was never recognized, and kept talking over the chair. Paul had Capitol Police remove him from the room — noting for the record that Fauci “will still have the advice of the other half a dozen attorneys that he brought along today.”

Pfaff called the removal totally appropriate, because it is consistent with Fauci’s character — an attitude Pfaff traced through the entire COVID process and most of Fauci’s career:

“These people literally believe they’re above the law. They literally believe that they know more than we do and we need to shut up and comply.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

Then Senator Bernie Moreno turned the hearing toward the people who lived under that attitude. He asked audience members to stand if they were called racist for saying “Wuhan virus,” fired from their jobs for refusing the vaccine — including members of the military — or shamed for calling school closures “catastrophically stupid.” He then asked Fauci to turn around and look at the people behind him. Fauci would not turn around.

“Bureaucrats Who Recognize the Kind of Power That They Have”

How does a man the Nobel Prize-winning biochemist Kary Mullis said “doesn’t know anything really about anything” — in a clip from the 1990s the show played — rise to run the federal COVID response? Pfaff’s answer names the machine, not just the man:

“Anthony Fauci epitomizes the deep state. It’s just bureaucrats who are put in certain positions who recognize the kind of power that they have”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

This is the same unaccountable-administrator pattern we documented in our earlier analysis of the deep state problem. Pfaff extended it across the health agencies — FDA, CDC, NIH, CMS. The FDA, he argued, approves products to meet the needs of large pharmaceutical companies rather than on validity, and sometimes against valid treatments. Robert Kennedy Jr. supplied the mechanism: a little-known law says that if there are effective treatments for a disease, you cannot fast-track a vaccine against it. That’s why hydroxychloroquine, fenbendazole, and vitamin D treatments were rejected outright — because billions of dollars were at stake, and American taxpayers threw hundreds of billions of dollars into the coffers of pharmaceutical companies on the COVID vaccines.

Pfaff also dismantled Fauci’s most famous defense — the claim that coming after him meant coming after science:

“Science is a process. It’s not a thing. It’s not settled. Science never gets settled.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

Pfaff put that word game in a familiar category: the functional equivalent of Bill Clinton’s deposition line that it depends on what the meaning of “is” is. Fauci, in Pfaff’s telling, hardly ever practiced science — he paid for what was supposed to be science and handed the money out at his pleasure on an administrative basis, not a scientific one.

The Autopen Pardon Problem

Pfaff’s explanation for why Fauci pleads the Fifth comes down to the pardon itself. His prediction: one of the Biden pardons signed by autopen is going to be challenged in court and found wanting. The evidence trail is already public. The audio recordings Robert Hur referenced when questioning Joe Biden over classified documents have come out, showing the cognitive decline was real. Congress deposed many Biden administration officials about their actual interactions with Biden, and some of those recordings have been released — material Pfaff guarantees holds information that could be used in court to support that Biden had no idea the autopen pardons were being signed.

“Anthony Fauci is boxed in a corner and he knows it, because he knows he was a liar. He knows he lied to the American people”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

Pfaff’s verdict: “the chickens are coming home to roost for him.” Fauci’s work as director of his organization does not hold up under rational scrutiny, much less criminal scrutiny — and Fauci knows it, which is why he refuses to add a single answer to the record.

Fetterman’s Lab-Leak Regret — and Missiles Over Jordan

Every other Democrat the host saw take the mic praised Fauci. John Fetterman broke ranks. His one regret, he told the committee, was that the theory the virus emerged from a nearby lab “became a very partisan thing” — dismissed early as a right-wing idea when there was a really advanced lab close by and an unknown virus out. Now, Fetterman said, it seems more and more the emerging theory that the virus came from the lab — and the country should be willing to pursue truth no matter which political side it comes from.

Pfaff is no Fetterman ally — he opposed him against Dr. Oz and says plainly he is not a conservative. But he credited Fetterman with actually questioning whether he knows what he thinks he knows. And that self-questioning, Pfaff argued, is now happening across the country:

“Anthony Fauci is not beloved anymore in this country by any stretch of the imagination.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

Americans are asking, in Pfaff’s words, “did we really have to go through all that?” His answer: “the answer to that question is an unequivocal no, we did not have to go through all that.” The follow-up question — what do we do about the people that did this to us — is exactly what the contempt vote begins to answer.

The show ran out of time on its final story: Iran fired missiles at American bases in Jordan the night before, all of them were shot down, and President Trump said the United States is going to hit back. For where that confrontation stands, see our breakdown of Iran’s Strait of Hormuz threat.

Key Takeaways

1. Fauci pleads the Fifth over 70 times – Under subpoena, and after being directed by the chair to answer, Fauci refused every question at the July 29 Senate hearing.
2. Contempt vote scheduled – Rand Paul set an HSGAC Committee vote for the following week on a resolution certifying contempt, arguing the blanket pardon and Fauci’s opening testimony strip the Fifth Amendment privilege.
3. Attorney removed by Capitol Police – Fauci’s lawyer defied seating instructions and disrupted proceedings; half a dozen other attorneys remained at Fauci’s side.
4. The autopen pardon is the real fight – Pfaff predicts the pardon will be challenged and found wanting in court, backed by the Robert Hur audio and depositions of Biden administration officials.
5. Fetterman broke ranks – The lone Democrat to voice regret, he admitted the lab-leak theory was wrongly dismissed as partisan and called for pursuing truth regardless of political side.

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About The Conservative Caucus:
The Conservative Caucus is a grassroots public policy action organization, formed in 1974. Headed by President Jim Pfaff, the Caucus is committed to advancing free enterprise, limited government, and traditional values.

Originally broadcast July 29, 2026 on Worldview Tube’s Washington Report.