Senator escalates next move against Dr Anthony Fauci after explosive hearing

By VICTORIA CHURCHILL, US POLITICAL REPORTER Published: 18:41, 30 July 2026 | Updated: 18:42, 30 July 2026 Wednesday's brutal Capitol Hill grilling might not have been Anthony Fauci's last. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, who chairs the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in the US Senate, is requesting transcribed interviews with the infamous COVID-19 doctor, as well as other Food and Drug Administration officials.  Johnson alleges that senior FDA officials ignored warnings that the agency’s COVID-19 vaccine safety monitoring system was failing to detect potential safety signals.  The closed-door transcribed interview process is what the House Oversight Committee has been using in the Epstein investigations. Information obtained has been released to the general public within days of the interviews. Johnson is requesting that Fauci appear before his committee to 'provide much-needed transparency about the COVID-19 pandemic and the government's response to it, including early treatments and the development, deployment, safety monitoring, and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines.' If the doctors requested to appear for interviews do not do so voluntarily, Johnson noted that he is prepared to use a 'compulsory process.' The Daily Mail reached out to Fauci's attorney to see if the doctor plans to appear as requested in the letter. On Wednesday, Fauci refused to answer any questions asked by Senators during a nearly three-hour-long hearing on Capitol Hill, during which he invoked the Fifth Amendment to avoid self-incrimination a total of 111 times. Fauci's refusal to provide answers started with the moment he invoked the Fifth Amendment in his opening round of remarks. Dr. Anthony Fauci has been asked to appear before Congress again after avoiding answering questions 111 times during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs hearing on Wednesday Wisconsin Republican Ron Johnson is asking Fauci to appear before his committee, the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in the US Senate, for a closed door interview He then continued doing so repeatedly when interrogated by the committee's lawmakers. Speaking with members of the media after Wednesday's hearing on Capitol Hill, Kentucky Republican Rand Paul, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, which held Wednesday's hearing, revealed that he planned to hold a vote to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress next week. During his opening statements on Wednesday, Fauci accused Paul of having an 'unhinged obsession' with him. Senator Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, clashed with Dr Fauci numerous times during a Senate Homeland Security and Fauci's lead attorney, David Schertler, was also removed by security after trying to speak on his client's behalf. 'I didn't invite you here to testify,' Paul told him, before ordering guards to eject him. Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, later read out a statement from Schertler accusing Paul of running something other than 'a serious effort to seek information'. The Republican, it said, has 'built a personal brand' around his pursuit of the doctor. Paul hit back that in no courtroom in America can a witness plead the Fifth and then have his lawyer testify for him. 'The attorney is complaining and testifying, saying you didn't do it. The prosecution is unfair. You don't get to do that,' he said. 'That's one thing you give up when you take the Fifth Amendment and say I'm not going to testify.' 'He was not invited to testify, he was out of order, and it was appropriate to have him ejected,' Paul told the room of attendees and reporters at the hearing.