Hawley accused Fauci of using legal maneuvers to avoid public accountability for actions taken during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"But I think I know why you're doing it. It's because you don't want to answer questions.
It's because you did all kinds of terrible things. It's because during the pandemic, you got rich… while people were dying," said Hawley.
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The hearing also saw procedural friction when committee Chairman Rand Paul, R-Ky.
, ejected top Fauci attorney David Schertler after Schertler refused to remain in his assigned seat and stay quiet.
Ohio Republican Senator Bernie Moreno followed Hawley's questioning by asking Fauci to demonstrate knowledge of the constitutional clause he was claiming.
When Moreno asked Fauci to recite the Fifth Amendment, Fauci declined to do so.
"No, I'm just asking you what it says," said Moreno.
Fauci repeated his standardized legal response despite the clarification.
"On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution," said Fauci.
Moreno directed an aide to deliver a physical copy of the U. S.
Constitution to Fauci, but the effort yielded the same invocation from the former official.
"So you're invoking a right that you don't know who wrote it or what it says? Is that correct?"
asked Moreno.
Fauci again invoked his Fifth Amendment right after declining to read or recite the text.
Analyzing the legal context on Fox News, anchor Harris Faulkner noted that while President Joe Biden's retroactive pardon protects Fauci from federal offenses, it does not offer universal immunity.
"It does not protect him from prosecution from perjury if he lies under oath after receiving the pardon," said Faulkner.
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Faulkner added that the presidential pardon does not shield individuals from state criminal prosecutions, future offenses, or congressional oversight inquiries.
