INTERNACIONAL
Reporter’s Notebook: Why Fauci’s 111 Fifth Amendment pleas could end up before the courts
GOP calls for Fauci contempt charges after wild COVID hearing
Dr. Anthony Fauci faces potential contempt charges and criminal referral from Senate Republicans after his contentious testimony. He invoked the Fifth Amendment over 100 times during questioning about the COVID-19 pandemic response. Senators Rand Paul and James Lankford, along with legal expert Jonathan Turley, discuss the legal hurdles and public frustration surrounding Fauci’s actions.
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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.
Anthony Fauci declined to testify in a Senate committee hearing on his role in the U.S. response to COVID-19, invoking his Fifth Amendment rights. (Left (Alex WROBLEWSKI / AFP via Getty Images), Right (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images))
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.
Fauci said Rand Paul, who recently released more than 1,000 pages of his personal diary entries, has an «obvious obsession» with pushing for his prosecution. (CNN)
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 standpoint, there is logic behind Hawley’s banal inquiries. These are carefully designed questions which a good prosecutor might ask a witness to trip them up.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., speaks in front of a board with an image of Anthony Fauci, the former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and medical advisor to several U.S. presidents, as Fauci (not pictured) attends a U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 29, 2026. Anthony Fauci declined to answer questions, invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. (REUTERS/Nathan Howard)
To wit: If Fauci had already invoked the Fifth Amendment, why is he suddenly answering questions about the calendar, his tie or carpeting? If Fauci replied «Wednesday,» «blue» or «green» as answers to Hawley’s queries, Paul could have asserted that the Fifth Amendment shield no longer applied. Thus, the committee, or the courts, should compel Fauci to respond to any question.
By the same token, Republicans argued that Fauci should have been able to answer such trite questions from Hawley because they had nothing to do with the proceedings. It’s kind of a «we win, you lose» proposition for the GOP.
Yet Fauci never deviated from the script, invoking the Fifth Amendment 111 times.
CAN FAUCI HIDE BEHIND THE FIFTH? GAME-CHANGING BIDEN PARDON MAY NOT PROVIDE COMPLETE COVER, EXPERTS SAY
By the way, Fauci’s repetitive legal recitation of the Fifth is not a Senate record. In 1958, mob boss Vito Genovese appeared before a Senate panel investigating organized crime. Genovese established the mark, invoking the Fifth a stupefying 150 times.
Republicans don’t think that Fauci had any right to invoke the Fifth even once, considering his pardon from former President Joe Biden. On one hand, they asserted he should be free to testify. Democrats took issue with that.
«I’m not surprised that he pled the Fifth because the objective is to put him in jeopardy of criminal prosecution,» said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. «So the more prudent course was to claim the Fifth Amendment.»
Hawley saw it differently, citing the 1896 Supreme Court case Brown v. Walker.
In the late 19th Century, the Supreme Court granted auditor Theodore Brown immunity to testify in a railway rate-fixing case. But Brown still refused to testify. However, the High Court ruled that Brown had to speak. Writing for the majority, Justice Henry Billings Brown (no relation), who also wrote the opinion in Plessy v. Ferguson, declared the following:
«If it be once conceded that the fact that his testimony may tend to bring the witness into disrepute, though not to incriminate him, does not entitle him to the privilege of silence, it necessarily follows that, if it also tends to incriminate, but at the same time operates as a pardon for the offense, the fact that the disgrace remains no more entitles him to immunity in this case than in the other.»
Translation: What you have to say may be embarrassing. But if you enjoy the privilege of immunity, you still have to cough up the goods, despite the Fifth Amendment.
Lois Lerner, who headed the IRS division that oversaw tax-exempt groups, apologized for the targeting scandal and eventually resigned. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
How Fauci conducted himself in the hearing runs parallel to former IRS official Lois Lerner’s conduct in 2014. Republicans believed that Lerner blocked groups affiliated with the Tea Party from tax-exempt status or targeted them for scrutiny. At a 2014 House Oversight Committee hearing, Lerner delivered an opening statement. She then invoked the Fifth.
The full House later voted to hold Lerner in contempt of Congress for not answering questions and referred her to the Justice Department for prosecution. The DOJ, then operating under the administration of former President Barack Obama, did not take action against Lerner.
Whether or not DOJ prosecutes contempt of Congress often comes down to which party on Capitol Hill is doing the referring, and which party controls the Justice Department.
For instance, the Republican House referred former Attorney General Eric Holder to the DOJ for contempt of Congress in 2012. But it was Holder who ran the Justice Department. So that was a dead letter.
The Democratic House referred White House Counsel Harriet Miers to the DOJ in 2008. But the administration of former President George W. Bush was simply not going to prosecute its own lead attorney at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, left, and former Trump adviser Peter Navarro. (Getty Images)
The Democratic House held Trump administration figures Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro in contempt of Congress for failing to appear before the committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot. Naturally, the Biden Justice Department prosecuted that duo.
So could Fauci face prosecution from the Trump Justice Department after a referral from the Republican-led Senate?
The Lerner case bears further study. The Obama DOJ declined to prosecute Lerner because she asserted her Fifth Amendment rights — but after her opening statement. Fauci did the same. Would the Trump administration perceive Fauci’s protocol at the hearing through a similar lens?
Paul will ask his committee to prep a resolution holding Fauci in contempt of Congress in the coming days. But the full Senate must approve such a measure before sending it to the DOJ for possible prosecution.
It’s easier to adopt a contempt of Congress resolution in the House because it only requires a simple majority. The same is true in the Senate. But it must also clear a filibuster, which needs 60 votes. That’s why contempt of Congress citations are more prevalent in the House than the Senate.
But Paul believes he has a workaround.
«I plan on sending it directly with the legal brief supporting the argument to the Department of Justice,» Paul told Fox News.
It’s then up to DOJ to prosecute Fauci or not.
Former NIH Director Anthony Fauci listens during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on July 29, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Fauci declined to answer questions, asserting his Fifth Amendment right. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
However, in his same appearance on Fox, Paul said he had «sent a criminal referral on Anthony Fauci twice under Biden and twice under Trump.»
President Donald Trump’s DOJ hasn’t prosecuted Fauci before. But would prosecutors see it differently after Fauci’s performance at the hearing?
That brings us back to Lerner.
She invoked the Fifth Amendment and the DOJ did not prosecute. That establishes a precedent. Would the Trump DOJ follow that model? Or are we in for what could be a lengthy, perhaps seminal court battle about whether Fauci was in the right to invoke the Fifth Amendment? That may trigger a legal fight over his pardon from Biden — and perhaps what the High Court ruled in Brown v. Walker.
We’ll know when or if the DOJ takes action. In the case of Fauci, silence may be golden. But in this instance, it may be up to the courts to determine if it’s legal.
anthony fauci, congress, politics, rand paul, hearings
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«¿Has visto a mi hijo?», la pregunta que se repite entre las familias marroquíes en medio de la crisis migratoria en Ceuta
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US companies win billions in African data center deals in direct competition with China
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JOHANNESBURG: The U.S. is beating China in a high-tech trade war over data centers in a fierce battle being waged across Africa.
Major new deals have been engineered in a public-private partnership between the Trump administration and U.S. companies in Africa, while States across the U.S. clamp down on the centers over their massive reliance on electricity.
The administration’s Bureau of African Affairs has reported it has worked on 37 commercial transactions that have closed since the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term — representing $25.67 billion in total value, with more still being reported.
RESOURCE-RICH NATION PRAISES US TIES AMID WASHINGTON-BEIJING CRITICAL MINERALS RACE
A rendering of BESS battery storage facilities, to be constructed in Lesotho by U.S. company Convalt Energy, as part of a $6.2 billion deal with the government of Lesotho facilitated with the assistance of the U.S. government. (Convalt Energy)
Data centers are at the heart of today’s global economy — fueling the massive demand for AI and hosting everything from video streaming to housing cloud networks.
In Lesotho, with U.S. help, an American company has won a $6.2 billion deal for a data center and hydropower plant. It is the largest transaction in this Southern African country’s history.
In Gabon, the U.S. Embassy helped win $600 million in business for American companies in 2025. And this year, the embassy in this central African country has assisted in securing a $100 million contract to supply two data centers and a gas-to-power plant, in the face of strong competition from China.
Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Frank Garcia told Fox News Digital, «Under President Trump’s leadership, the United States is assisting U.S. companies to find new markets and flourish in Africa.»
The main strategic competitor in Africa is China. While American goods traded with Africa last year were valued at $83.4 billion by the Office of the United States Trade Representative, Beijing’s General Administration of Customs claimed bilateral trade between China and Africa reached $348 billion for the same period.
But Garcia called out China for giving African countries a raw deal, saying «there are others (notably China) that trap, coerce and undermine. The choice to me is clear — partner with the United States for prosperity.»
Rendering of the Kobong, Lesotho Pumped Hydro project, which is to be constructed in Lesotho by U.S. company Convalt Energy, as part of a $6.2 billion deal with the government of Lesotho facilitated with the assistance of the U.S. government. (Convalt Energy)
To drive this initiative, the State Department, through the Bureau of African Affairs, launched the Commercial Diplomacy Strategy in early 2025, with Garcia telling Fox News Digital the U.S. «is working worldwide to advance a level playing field for U.S. companies and address disparities in trade practices.»
The playing fields in Lesotho are not level: Geographically because this is a mountain kingdom. Financially because China is historically deeply entrenched in life there. Beijing has dropped all tariffs on Lesotho’s exports. Payments between the two countries have been simplified, with Lesothans able to bank directly with the State-owned Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.
Beijing has canceled debt on major projects in Lesotho, and among other major projects is building a new fire station, a solar power plant and even completed a police fingerprint examination laboratory.
CHINA IS BUILDING AN AI WAR MACHINE. WASHINGTON MUST WAKE UP BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE
This makes it all the more remarkable that, with the administration’s help, primarily through the local embassy, U.S. company Convalt Energy has secured a $6.2 billion agreement with the government of Lesotho.
Garcia told Fox News Digital that the «project includes a 1,200MW pumped-storage hydropower facility and a 900MW AI data center, increasing Lesotho’s electricity generation capacity by approximately 1,600% and transforming the country into a net exporter of electricity. The project is expected to generate approximately $2 billion in U.S. energy equipment exports.»
Convalt Energy’s president and CEO, Hari Achuthan, in Lesotho at the site of where the new data center and pumping station will stand. July 29, 2026. (Convalt Energy)
Convalt Energy’s president and CEO, Hari Achuthan, told Fox News Digital how U.S. companies such as his are beating China on their traditional turf: «American companies can compete successfully by innovating faster, integrating hardware and software, and remaining intensely focused on the needs of the end customer.»
A new data center, Achuthan believes, is not only at the heart of the project, but is essential for any country’s growth. «The next major cycle of economic growth will increasingly be driven by artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure and the energy systems required to support them. AI cannot scale without physical infrastructure. Every data center requires reliable power, water, fiber connectivity, land, cooling systems and resilient transmission infrastructure.»
«The Trump administration’s emphasis on trade and private-sector investment, rather than relying primarily on grant funding, is closely aligned with our approach in Africa,» Achuthan continued. «In Lesotho, we are pursuing a commercially sustainable infrastructure platform built around long-term investment, bilateral trade with a durable, sustainable operating business.»
«At the same time,» Achuthan added, «the project can create meaningful economic benefits in the United States. Convalt’s U.S. manufacturing facilities are being developed to serve domestic customers as well as international markets, particularly Africa, where demand for power, manufacturing capacity and digital infrastructure is growing rapidly.»
Rendering of U.S. company Cybastion’s projected data center in the Ivory Coast, West Africa. The U.S. Embassy in Abidjan helped facilitate a $170 million contract with the government of the Ivory Coast that includes the provision of the data center. (Cybastion)
The construction of two data centers is part of the $100 million deal Assistant Secretary Garcia says administration officials have helped American company Cybastion secure. Garcia added, «Notably, the U.S. company prevailed over Huawei (a Chinese company) in a direct competition for the project.»
Cybastion CEO Dr. Thierry Wandji believes U.S. companies can and are now coming to the fore. Earlier this month, the U.S. Embassy in the Ivory Coast confirmed an even larger deal for Cybastion. The $170 million contract will bring a data center, government digitalization platform and a cutting-edge border surveillance system to this West African country.
Wandji told Fox News Digital, «We believe we are the better option compared to other global competitors. Cybastion brings a unique understanding of the African context and local business environments.»
A recent site visit to the construction zone for a new data center in the Ivory Coast, which is part of a $170 million contract facilitated by the U.S. Embassy for development by the U.S. company Cybastion. (Clement Djakey for Cybastion)
«Africa has some of the world’s fastest-growing economies,» Wandji continued. «Across the continent, countries are prioritizing sovereign data centers, modernizing their government services through digitalization, and digital workforce development as part of their national development plans.
«The U.S. tech sector offers global competitiveness unparalleled to any country in the world,» Wandji added. «We deliver innovation, transparency and accountability in our business offerings, while creating new markets for U.S. companies.»
Convalt’s Achuthan told Fox News Digital what’s working for U.S. business in Africa, «American companies must clearly communicate the value of quality, transparency, safety, responsible business practices and long-term community partnership. Competing solely on price is not enough going forward. Companies from the United States should compete on performance, reliability, innovation, institutional trust and the ability to create sustainable local economic benefits.»
africa, trade, state department, china, national security
Trump orders warning signs outside Smithsonian over ‘woke’ exhibits
President Donald Trump orders warning signs outside the Smithsonian, alleging politicized exhibits that emphasize activism over history. The institution faces scrutiny for promoting racial reparations and for a 2020 infographic criticizing ‘white culture.’ A congressional hearing further ignited debate over the museum’s ‘woke’ displays and their historical accuracy, highlighting the growing tension.
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President Donald Trump’s effort to remake the Smithsonian is reaching the institution’s bottom line, with the administration proposing its smallest budget request in years while pushing to eliminate what it calls «woke» ideology from federally funded museums and programs.
A Fox News Digital analysis of Smithsonian budget requests found the institution submitted steadily larger funding requests during the Biden administration, with annual requests rising from $1.11 billion in fiscal year 2021 to a record $1.24 billion in fiscal year 2024.
The fiscal year 2025 request also exceeded $1 billion before the Trump administration proposed reducing the institution’s request below that threshold in its fiscal year 2026 and 2027 budgets—the first time since fiscal year 2020 that the Smithsonian’s annual request has fallen below $1 billion.
The proposed funding reduction comes as the White House expands one of its most ambitious efforts to reshape a federally funded cultural institution, arguing the Smithsonian has promoted ideological narratives at odds with its mission and directing it to change its exhibits, programming, leadership and spending priorities.
FORMER DEMOCRATIC STAFFERS, DEI LEADERS SHAPE SMITHSONIAN LEADERSHIP AMID POLITICAL FIRESTORM
President Donald Trump launched a sweeping White House review of the Smithsonian, arguing the institution had promoted «divisive» ideological narratives. (Maxine Wallace/The Washington Post/Getty Images)
The White House’s effort to root out what it calls «woke» ideology at the Smithsonian has grown into one of the most extensive reviews of the institution in decades.
Over the past 16 months, the administration has examined museum exhibits, educational programming, internal records and leadership statements, issued multiple document requests, interviewed curators and conducted on-site museum walkthroughs.
That review culminated in a 162-page White House report recommending sweeping reforms and a new round of executive actions aimed at implementing those recommendations.
The administration has ordered the Smithsonian to promote what it describes as a more accurate portrayal of American history while scrutinizing exhibits, programming and leadership across the museum complex.
INSIDE THE BEHEMOTH SMITHSONIAN MUSEUM NETWORK DRAWING FIRE FROM THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
The Smithsonian, the nation’s largest museum and research complex, is at the center of a White House campaign to overhaul its presentation of American history. (J. David Ake/Getty Images)
The Smithsonian oversees 21 museums, the National Zoo and nearly 157 million objects and specimens while receiving more than $1 billion annually in federal funding, in addition to private donations and other trust revenue.
The taxpayer-supported institution has become the latest battleground in a broader national debate over patriotism, historical interpretation and the role of federally funded cultural institutions in shaping how Americans understand the nation’s past.
TRUMP ORDERS SIGNS OUTSIDE SMITHSONIAN MUSEUM AMID ROW OVER ITS DEPICTION OF AMERICAN HISTORY
Whether Congress adopts the administration’s proposed funding levels remains to be seen.
But alongside executive orders, museum reviews and a sweeping White House report, the budget proposal signals that the administration intends to use both policy and federal funding to reshape one of the nation’s largest cultural institutions.
The Smithsonian Institute did not immediately respond to Fox New Digital’s request for comment.
smithsonian, white house, donald trump, woke, politics
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