One of Anthony Fauci's federal employees celebrated getting him rich while a million Americans were dying.
Now a Senate hearing has the emails to prove it.
And those emails are why Fauci took the Fifth 100 times.
Fauci Pleads the Fifth 100 Times at Rand Paul Senate Hearing While Hawley Reads His Own Emails
Anthony Fauci appeared under congressional subpoena before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on July 29 – summoned by committee chair Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky – and invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times.
Three hours of questioning produced one answer.
"On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution."
Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri wasn't there to ask about the lab leak.
He was asking about the money.
Hawley entered internal NIH emails into the committee record – documents showing Fauci's own taxpayer-funded staff doing the legwork: writing up nomination materials, reaching out to prize committees, and running the paperwork through federal ethics channels so their boss could collect the checks.
When ethics clearance finally came through for Fauci's biggest payout, one NIH employee sent him a message that became a Senate exhibit: "Congratulations….you're rich!"
Fauci answered with the Fifth Amendment.
"You were using federal employees with taxpayer money to apply for and solicit cash prizes for you personally, cash prizes totaling over $1 million," Hawley told Fauci.
"You did all of that during the pandemic, didn't you?"
Fauci took the Fifth.
Paul ordered Fauci's attorney removed from the room after the lawyer tried to speak on his client's behalf.
How Fauci Used NIH Employees to Chase the Dan David Prize and Nearly $900,000 in Cash
The centerpiece of Hawley's evidence was the Dan David Prize – a $1 million international award from an Israeli private foundation.
Fauci's own financial disclosure corrected the exact deposit: $899,960 wired directly to his personal bank account.
Beyond the Dan David Prize, Hawley cited awards from the Partnership for Public Service, the Adelson Prize, and the Smithsonian Institution – eight separate cash prizes Fauci pursued using federal employees and federal time.
The scientists doing the nominating weren't disinterested parties – their labs were pulling in research grants from the same agency Fauci ran.
One researcher who nominated Fauci for the Dan David Prize later asked Fauci's staff to nominate him in return for the Shaw Prize – another seven-figure award worth $1.2 million.
Federal law bars executive branch employees from soliciting or pocketing cash awards – but NIH had carved out broad exceptions, and the agency director held the authority to approve them for himself.
His $400,000 annual salary – the highest of any federal employee in the country at the time – wasn't the ceiling.
Hawley Introduces the No Cash Prizes for Bureaucrats Act as Rand Paul Moves for Contempt Vote
The day after the hearing, Hawley introduced the No Cash Prizes for Bureaucrats Act.
The bill would eliminate every loophole allowing federal employees to collect cash awards for medicine and research while drawing a government paycheck.
It would also strengthen existing rules blocking NIH officials from using their position, their duty time, or a subordinate's work hours to solicit or coerce lucrative prizes for themselves.
"No federal bureaucrat should accept cash prizes while on the job," Hawley said in a statement.
"Anthony Fauci got rich while millions of people died. It can never happen again."
Paul announced a contempt vote against Fauci for the following week, arguing that Biden's preemptive pardon does not shield Fauci from asserting the Fifth – a constitutional question Paul said had likely never been tested in court.
Fauci had 38 years to perfect this system – staff pursuing prize nominations on taxpayer time, researchers who needed his funding assembling his award packages, ethics officials approving every check.
He built it while Americans were locked in their homes and the bodies were piling up.
Then he sat in front of the United States Senate and refused to answer a single question about any of it.
Josh Hawley's bill is the answer Fauci spent 100 Fifth Amendment invocations trying to avoid.
Sources:
- Virginia Grace McKinnon, "SCOOP: The New Ban Hawley Wants After Fauci's Senate Appearance," The Daily Signal, July 30, 2026.
- "Hawley Introduces Legislation to Bar Federal Employees from Accepting or Soliciting Cash Prizes," Hawley.senate.gov, July 30, 2026.
- Staff, "Hawley Moves to Close Federal Cash Prize Loopholes After Fauci 'Got Rich While Millions of People Died,'" Fox News, July 30, 2026.
- Staff, "Fauci Invokes Fifth Amendment as Hawley Accuses Him of Using Taxpayer Money for Cash Awards," Fox Business, July 29, 2026.
- "Scientists Who Nominated Fauci for Prize Money Received Millions in NIAID Funding," Washington Examiner, July 28, 2026.
