Dr. Anthony Fauci is refusing to answer questions from Republican Senator Rand Paul at a congressional hearing on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, which the 85-year-old infectious disease expert and former National Institutes of Health official has labeled a yearslong partisan crusade intended to smear him.

After a brief opening statement, Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution under questions from Paul during his testimony to the Senate Homeland Security committee on Wednesday.

“Given Sen. Paul’s obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution, his repeated slanderous comments about me, and recently, his publicly releasing my personal diary aimed at embarrassing and intimidating me, is that the sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something, anything, that can vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up in his words quote, ‘behind bars,’ end quote,” Fauci said.

“Any person who has followed his unhinged obsession with me would come to the same conclusion” to avoid answering his questions, he continued.

“Although it pains me to say so, and because of the respect I have for the legislative branch of the federal government … under the advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right to the Fifth Amendment to refrain from answering your questions,” Fauci said.

This is a developing story