2026-07-29T12:56:04.824Z / 美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）
共和党参议员兰德·保罗宣布，下周将就安东尼·福奇博士藐视国会一事发起投票。此前，这位领导美国新冠疫情政府应对工作的科学家在一场激烈的国会听证会上，超过100次援引第五修正案反对自证其罪的权利。
福奇在保罗发出的传票要求下出席参议院国土安全与政府事务委员会听证会，他在开场陈述中表示不会回答问题，称主席明显痴迷于呼吁起诉他。
但共和党参议员们采取了不同寻常的举动，依旧推进了听证会，接连向他询问美国国立卫生研究院（NIH）资助的研究以及新冠疫情起源等问题。这迫使福奇反复重申自己正在援引宪法权利。
听证会临近结束时，保罗表示将在下周发起藐视国会投票——这一程序可能会促使司法部考虑是否对福奇提起刑事诉讼。
这场听证会持续了两个多小时，福奇大部分时间都直视前方，但偶尔会流露出沮丧情绪。
其中一个特别戏剧性的时刻是，当福奇的律师多次试图插话并援引福奇的第五修正案权利时，保罗让人将律师请出了会场。
在听证会前提交的书面声明中，福奇的律师称，福奇出庭的相关情况“遗憾地使他继续与国会合作变得不可能”，并补充说保罗对其当事人发起了“公开讨伐”。
共和党批评人士可能没有机会就这位科学家所谓的新冠疫情应对失当以及病毒起源的阴谋论进行重新辩论，但他们确实获得了数小时的画面：在共和党议员发表长篇大论质疑福奇的行为后，福奇拒绝回答问题——这对他们长期以来削弱福奇影响力的政治努力而言是一大助力。
“请记录在案，证人以第五修正案权利为由拒绝回答他面前是否有一个文件夹的问题，”保罗在某一时刻说道。
不过福奇在开场陈述中指出，共和党议员明确表示他们希望利用听证会将他起诉，称“（参议员保罗）召集我到这个委员会的唯一目的，就是让我说些什么、任何话，以证实他反复公开宣称的，我最终会，用他的话说，‘锒铛入狱’。”
与此同时，委员会的民主党议员们利用各自的发言时间表达不满，称保罗传唤福奇，而非聚焦于医疗保健机构的预算削减议题。
“很不幸你今天处于这样的境地，而且你一定非常沮丧地意识到，这场听证会的目的就是设圈套陷害你，”来自新罕布什尔州的参议员玛吉·哈桑对福奇说道。
作为美国传染病研究的标志性人物，福奇的职业生涯可追溯至艾滋病毒/艾滋病危机时期，他此前已超过250次在国会作证，这是他首次援引第五修正案。
这位现年85岁的美国国家过敏和传染病研究所（NIAID）前主任此前曾在议员面前宣誓否认保罗提出的有关隐瞒新冠疫情起源以及存在争议的传染病研究的指控。
保罗等人施加的压力促使乔·拜登总统在其任期的最后几天提前赦免了福奇，使福奇免受针对其过往言论的指控。
但在保罗成为参议院一个主要委员会的主席后，福奇面临了新的威胁：共和党参议员以及其他人，包括美国卫生与公众服务部部长小罗伯特·肯尼迪，将想方设法寻求对福奇提起伪证罪指控。
“一项能保护个人免受刑事起诉的赦免并不能改写历史。它不能抹去文件，不能将误导性陈述转为真实陈述，也不能阻止国会查明真相，”保罗在开场发言中说道，他指的是福奇歪曲疫情起源以及删除内部通信的指控。
保罗和肯尼迪在听证会前明确表示，他们希望2022年已退休的福奇在有关新冠疫情起源、封锁措施以及NIAID资助的科学研究的证词中作伪证。
“福奇说过很多我们知道是谎言的话，兰德·保罗 presumably 会就此向他提问，如果他再次撒谎，那么他可能会面临伪证起诉，”肯尼迪周一晚间告诉福克斯新闻。
唐纳德·特朗普总统也在周三听证会前发表了看法，他在社交媒体帖子中称福奇“做出了太多糟糕的决策”。这位总统补充说，他“没有让（福奇）在疫情期间关闭整个国家”。
福奇拒绝回答问题的几天前，另一位众议院共和党人将前特别检察官杰克·史密斯移交司法部，建议对其提起可能的诉讼，称他在闭门举行的委员会证词中做出了虚假陈述。与福奇一样，史密斯也受到了特朗普盟友的严密审查，他们对史密斯调查总统试图推翻2020年大选结果的行为感到愤怒。
保罗认为，NIH资助了中国武汉的病毒研究，制造了毒性和传染性更强的冠状病毒毒株。这类被称为“功能获得性研究”的研究通常用于更好地了解病毒的传播方式以及治疗方法。
多年来，福奇一直否认NIH资助过与导致2020年大流行的冠状病毒相关的研究。联邦对疫情起源的调查尚无定论，但没有证据表明病毒是经过工程改造并从病毒学实验室泄露的。
然而福奇和保罗在国会听证会上经常就NIH是否在中国资助功能获得性研究展开争论。福奇坚持认为，按照政府对功能获得性研究的定义，该机构没有在海外资助此类研究。
这一直是保罗的关键论点，也是两人在多次国会听证会上激烈辩论的焦点。
“NIH和NIAID绝对没有资助在武汉研究所开展的功能获得性研究，”福奇在2021年5月参议院卫生、教育、劳工与养老金委员会的一场紧张听证会上对保罗说道。
同年7月，保罗再次就功能获得性研究向福奇提问，福奇回应道：“如果这里有人在撒谎，参议员，那就是你。”
在周三听证会前，保罗公布了福奇担任NIAID主任期间的1100页日记，时间跨度从2019年末新冠疫情开始在中国传播，到他2022年12月退休。日记内容显示了他对疫情日益增长的担忧、与政府官员的内部矛盾，以及他对自己名气渐长的记录。
肯尼迪在周一晚间的福克斯新闻采访中透露，他经过八个月的搜寻后将这些文件交给了保罗。
福奇将公布其日记视为保罗对他发起讨伐的又一证据，称此举“旨在羞辱和恐吓我”。
他在开场发言的最后说道：“尽管我很不情愿这样做，因为我对政府立法部门心怀敬意，也因为我几十年来一直与国会合作，但在律师的建议下，我将援引宪法第五修正案赋予我的权利，拒绝回答你们的问题。”
委员会最高级别民主党议员、来自密歇根州的参议员加里·彼得斯对此表示遗憾，称保罗将注意力放在福奇身上，牺牲了委员会的其他优先事项。
“今天的听证会没有聚焦于我们国家当前面临的国家安全挑战，而是倒退回了这个委员会已经审议过的问题，”彼得斯在福奇援引第五修正案前的发言中说道。“我们没有在此前工作的基础上加强我们应对未来灾难的准备能力，反而在重新翻查旧账。”
CNN的艾莉森·梅因为本报道贡献了内容。
本报道及标题已更新，补充了更多信息。
Sen. Paul vows contempt vote after Fauci repeatedly invokes Fifth Amendment in Covid hearing
2026-07-29T12:56:04.824Z / CNN
Republican Sen. Rand Paul declared that there will be a vote next week on holding Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress after the scientist who led the US government response to the Covid-19 pandemic invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 100 times during a contentious congressional hearing.
Appearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee under a subpoena from Paul, Fauci declared in his opening statement he would not be answering questions, citing what he characterized as the chairman’s “obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution.”
But in an unusual move, Republican Senators proceeded with the hearing anyway, peppering him with inquiries about National Institutes of Health-funded research and the origins of Covid-19. It forced Fauci to repeat, over and over, that he was invoking his constitutional right.
When the hearing was near its end, Paul said he would have a contempt vote next week – which could initiate a process that would result in the Justice Department considering whether to charge Fauci with a crime.
Throughout the hearing that ran well over two hours, Fauci mostly stared straight ahead. But at times, frustration appeared to flash across his face.
And in a particularly dramatic moment, Paul had Fauci’s attorney escorted out as the lawyer repeatedly tried to interject and invoke Fauci’s Fifth Amendment rights.
In a written statement submitted before the hearing, the lawyer said that the circumstances surrounding Fauci’s appearance “regrettably made his continued cooperation (with Congress) impossible,” adding that Paul had a “public crusade” against his client.
Republican critics might not have gotten meaningful exchanges to relitigate the scientist’s alleged mishandling of the Covid-19 response and conspiracies about the origins of the virus. But they did get hours of images of Fauci refusing to answer after GOP lawmakers delivered lengthy monologues questioning his conduct – a political boon in their long-running bid to undercut him.
“Let the record record that the witness has refused to answer whether there’s a folder in front of him based on his Fifth Amendment right,” Paul said at one point.
Fauci, though, noted in his opening statement that GOP lawmakers had made clear they wanted to use the hearing to get him prosecuted, saying “the sole reason (Sen. Paul) is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something, anything, that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, ‘behind bars.’”
Democrats on the committee, meanwhile, used their time to voice frustration that Paul subpoenaed Fauci rather than focusing on budget cuts to health care agencies.
“It is unfortunate that you have been put in the position that you are in today, and it must be enormously frustrating to know that this hearing is designed to entrap you,” Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire said to Fauci.
Fauci, the face of American infectious disease research dating back to the HIV/AIDs crisis, has appeared more than 250 times before Congress, and this is the first time that he’s invoked the Fifth Amendment.
The 85-year-old former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has previously appeared before lawmakers to deny, under oath, allegations brought by Paul of obscuring the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic and controversial infectious disease research.
Pressure from Paul and others led President Joe Biden to preemptively pardon Fauci during his last days in office, shielding Fauci from charges pertaining to any comments made in previous years.
But he faced a new threat after Paul became chairman of a major Senate committee: that Republican senators and others, including US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., would endeavor to find new ways to pursue perjury charges against him.
“A pardon that protects a person from criminal prosecution doesn’t rewrite history. It does not erase documents. It does not convert a misleading statement to a truthful one, and it does not prevent Congress from establishing what happened,” Paul said in his opening remarks, referencing his allegations that Fauci had misrepresented the pandemic’s origins and deleted internal correspondence.
Paul and Kennedy made clear ahead of the hearing that they hoped Fauci, who retired in 2022, would perjure himself in comments about the origins of Covid-19, shutdown measures and scientific research funded by NIAID.
“There are many things that (Fauci) said that we know are lies, and Rand Paul presumably is going to ask him about those things, and if he lies again, then he could be subject to perjury prosecution,” Kennedy told Fox News on Monday night.
President Donald Trump also weighed in ahead of the hearing on Wednesday, saying in a social media post that Fauci “made too many bad calls.” The president added that he “didn’t let (Fauci) shut the Country down” during the pandemic.
Fauci’s refusal to answer questions comes days after another House Republican referred former special counsel Jack Smith to the Justice Department for possible prosecution, suggesting he’d made false statements in his own committee testimony, which took place behind closed doors. Like Fauci, Smith has also come under intense scrutiny by Trump allies, who were angered by his investigation into the president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Paul contends that the NIH funded viral research in Wuhan, China, that made more virulent and contagious strains of coronavirus. Known as gain-of-function research, these types of studies are often used to better understand how viruses spread and how to treat them.
Fauci has denied through the years that the NIH ever funded studies related to the coronavirus that created the 2020 pandemic. Federal reviews of the outbreak have been inconclusive about its source, but there is no evidence the virus was engineered and leaked from a virology lab.
Yet Fauci and Paul have regularly sparred in congressional hearings about whether NIH funded gain-of-function research in China. Fauci maintains that by the government definition of the gain-of-function research, the agency did not fund such studies overseas.
It has remained a critical point for Paul, and a fiery debate between the two in multiple congressional hearings.
“The NIH and NIAID categorically has not funded gain-of-function research to be conducted in the Wuhan Institute,” Fauci told Paul in a tense hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee in May 2021.
Asked again that July by Paul about gain-of-function research, Fauci said: “If anybody is lying here, senator, it is you.”
Ahead of Wednesday’s hearing, Paul released 1,100 pages of Fauci’s diary as NIAID director, spanning from late 2019, when Covid-19 began spreading in China, to his retirement in in December 2022. The diary entries show his growing concern about the pandemic, internal conflicts with administration officials and his documentation of his rising fame.
Kennedy revealed in a Fox interview Monday night that he had handed those files to Paul after an eight-month search.
Fauci referenced the release of his diary as further evidence of Paul’s crusade against him, calling it a move “aimed at embarrassing and intimidating me.”
He concluded his opening remarks saying:“Although it pains me to do so because of the respect that I have for the legislative branch of government and my decades long record of cooperating with Congress, under the advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right under the 5th Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions.”
The committee’s highest ranking Democrat, Sen. Gary Peters from Michigan, lamented that Paul was focusing on Fauci at the cost of the committee’s other priorities.
“Instead of focusing on the national security challenges that we are facing in our country right now, today’s hearing looks backwards, revisiting questions this committee has already examined,” Peters said in his remarks prior to Fauci invoking the 5th amendment. “Rather than building on that work to strengthen our preparedness against future disasters, we are instead relitigating the past.”
CNN’s Alison Main contributed to this report.
This story and headline have been updated with additional information.
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