Fauci haunted by 2022 'nothing to hide' vow after invoking the Fifth Amendment 111 times

Dr. Anthony Fauci’s words are coming back to haunt him after resurfaced comments from a 2022 interview with CNN showed a complete 180 on his attitude toward testifying before Congress.

"I am very happy to testify before any congressional oversight committee," Fauci told CNN in 2022.

Fauci, under his lawyers’ guidance, did not answer a single question from Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., or others on the committee about his COVID-19 pandemic response or gain-of-function research, instead invoking the Fifth Amendment 111 times.

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"I have nothing to hide. I can explain and validate everything that I’ve done… I’m going to do what I need to do, and that is cooperate fully, because we have nothing to hide at all," he added in the CNN interview roughly four years ago.

Fox News Digital reached out to Fauci for comment on his 2022 assertion. 

Fauci argued during Wednesday’s hearing that Paul, who recently released more than 1,000 pages of his personal diary entries, has an "obvious obsession" with pushing for his prosecution.

He said the diary release was designed 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."

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"Although it pains me to do so because of the respect 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 Fifth Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions," Fauci told the Senate committee before invoking the Fifth Amendment 111 times.

Meanwhile, Rand Paul, who has spearheaded the investigation of Fauci, is looking to challenge whether the COVID leader was legally justified in pleading the Fifth Amendment, given that he is a recipient of a presidential pardon.

"The legal question is, if you're pardoned, can you really claim the Fifth?" he said on "The Will Cain Show" on Wednesday. "The Fifth Amendment is to claim immunity from self-incrimination. But if you've already been given immunity, you can't self-incriminate unless you lie."

Paul is seeking a vote to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress after the former public health official pleaded the Fifth 111 times at Wednesday’s contentious congressional hearing.