Washington (United States) (AFP) – The former top US infectious disease official on Wednesday faced adversarial questioning from Republican senators about the origins of Covid-19, and on the advice of lawyers invoked his constitutional right not to answer, casting the hearing as a character assassination.

It was the latest twist in the long-running feud between Anthony Fauci, who spent decades as the nation’s top expert in infectious disease, and Republican Senator Rand Paul, who insists on unsubstantiated claims that the origins of the pandemic began in a lab and was covered up.

Paul, who chairs the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, had subpoenaed the now-retired Fauci to testify, and prior to the hearing released thousands of pages of the immunologist’s unredacted personal diary.

Citing Paul’s “obsession” with him, Fauci said he would invoke the Fifth Amendment, refraining from answering questions to avoid self-incrimination, adding that it “pains me to do so.”

Fauci indicated his legal team believed Paul intended to entrap him in a slip-up that could result in perjury charges.

“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,’” Fauci said.

Fauci, 85, noted in his opening statement that he had testified before Congress more than 200 times over nearly four decades, saying “I proved that I believe in and respect the value of legitimate congressional oversight.”

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