A CNN legal analyst warned Wednesday that Dr. Anthony Fauci may have made his legal position worse by repeatedly invoking the Fifth Amendment during a tense Senate hearing on COVID-19 origins and pandemic accountability.
Ryan Goodman, a professor at NYU School of Law, questioned Fauci’s strategy after the former federal health official refused to answer nearly every question before a Republican-led panel chaired by Sen. Rand Paul.
Fauci appeared before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee as Paul and other Republicans pressed him over NIH-funded research, the origins of COVID-19 and whether he misled Congress during the pandemic years.
Fauci answered nearly every question with the same line.
“On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.”
Fauci invoked that protection more than 100 times during a hearing that stretched nearly three hours.
The move gave Republicans a stunning visual: the man who once became the face of federal pandemic guidance refusing to answer questions under oath.
Later Wednesday on CNN’s “OutFront,” host Erin Burnett asked Goodman whether Fauci’s repeated use of the Fifth Amendment would help him legally or create a bigger problem.
“Ryan, 112 times to invoke the Fifth Amendment. I mean, you can’t even string all that together. That obviously sends a message. Will that strategy work? Because he says, ‘Well, I had to do that because, you know, they’re looking for perjury traps’ – or does that just make it worse? And is he in real trouble?” she asked.
Goodman did not sugarcoat it.
“I think it makes it worse,” Goodman replied.
He said Fauci’s legal position was unusual because former President Joe Biden had already issued him a pardon covering actions before January 2025.
🚨 WOW! Even CNN just admitted that Fauci pleading the 5th 112 times was a HORRIBLE MOVE, it opened him up to PROSECUTION that he otherwise wouldn’t have faced
“It makes it worse. It’s even a curious way in which you wonder what his legal advice was, why they decided to do… pic.twitter.com/QbEkAvEP12
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) July 30, 2026
He continued: “It’s even a curious way in which you wonder what his legal advice was, why they decided to do that, because he does not face criminal jeopardy for the pardon, in all likelihood, he’s pardoned for all actions before January 2025.”
Goodman said that same pardon could weaken Fauci’s ability to refuse testimony.
“But that also means that you’re forced to testify,” Goodman continued, explaining that prosecutors often rely on immunity or pardons to compel testimony. “So then to plead the Fifth is actually, he could then be held in contempt, there could be, theoretically at least, a Justice Department that goes after him for not answering when he is not really facing criminal charges.”
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That is the problem Republicans immediately seized on.
If Fauci cannot be prosecuted for the covered conduct because of Joe Biden’s pardon, then conservatives argue he has less ground to avoid answering direct questions about what happened during the COVID era.
Burnett said Fauci’s argument that he was trying to avoid “perjury traps” may not land well with ordinary viewers.
“Then, of course, again, to the layperson, it’s the saying, well, why wouldn’t you just say the truth? What would be the problem in that?” she said. “I understand that’s a layperson thing, but it doesn’t sound good.”
The CNN exchange was notable because it came from a legal analyst on a network not exactly known for carrying water for Paul’s COVID investigations.
For years, Fauci’s defenders cast Republican scrutiny as political theater.
But Goodman’s analysis suggested Fauci’s blanket refusal to answer questions could create a new opening for legal pressure.
Fauci used the hearing to accuse Paul of trying to bait him into statements that could later be used against him.
Paul has spent years challenging Fauci over U.S.-funded research connected to the Wuhan Institute of Virology and whether federal officials were honest about the origins of COVID-19.
Fauci has repeatedly denied that NIH funded research that created the virus responsible for the pandemic.
The origins of COVID-19 remain disputed, with U.S. intelligence agencies divided between natural transmission and a possible laboratory-related incident.
No definitive conclusion has been reached.
Still, Wednesday’s hearing put Fauci’s credibility back under a national microscope.
Republicans did not get the answers they wanted from him.
But they did get a record of more than 100 refusals.
And according to Goodman, that may have handed them a new legal argument to use next.
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