Reporter's Notebook: Why Fauci's 111 Fifth Amendment pleas could end up before the courts

By Fox News · Fox News

Silence is golden. But actions speak louder than words. That’s the solution which Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Rand Paul , R-Ky., is engineering for the reticence of Dr. Anthony Fauci. The head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for 38 years, Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment a staggering 111 times when appearing under subpoena before Paul’s panel this week. RAND PAUL SEEKS CONTEMPT CHARGES AFTER FAUCI INVOKES FIFTH AMENDMENT MORE THAN 100 TIMES The only words Fauci spoke were his invocation of the Fifth Amendment on the advice of his attorney. But the action promised by Paul is contempt of Congress . "There will be repercussions to your refusal to testify today," warned Paul after Fauci invoked the Fifth. "The Committee will have to consider after this hearing what appropriate action should be taken against you for the failure to testify after being directed to do so. It's against the law to obstruct an investigation of Congress." But it’s not as though Fauci was completely mum during the entire hearing. He offered an opening statement before leaning on the Fifth Amendment as a shield for the next three hours. "The only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he 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, quote, ‘behind bars,’ unquote," Fauci said. "Any reasonable person who has followed his unhinged obsession with me would readily come to the same conclusion." And then Fauci fell mute. He ignored questions about his diary , inquiries about what ignited the pandemic, even interrogatives about the mundane. TOP 5 MOMENTS FROM FAUCI'S HEARING: PAUL BOOTS LAWYER, MORENO ERUPTS AS CONTEMPT VOTE LOOMS "What day of the week is it today?" asked Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo. Hawley wasn’t done. "What color tie are you're wearing?" Hawley continued. "What is the color of the carpeting?" From a legal…