What It Means to Plead the Fifth Amendment

Dr. Anthony Fauci’s decision to invoke his Fifth Amendment right to avoid answering lawmakers’ questions about the government’s handling of the COVID pandemic during a Senate hearing on Wednesday sparked outrage from Republicans.Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, the Republican chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said following the hearing that the panel would vote next week on whether it would recommend to hold Fauci, an infectious disease expert who helped lead the country’s pandemic response, in contempt of Congress after he pleaded the Fifth more than 100 times.Here’s what to know about the Fifth Amendment, why Fauci invoked it, and if he can be held in contempt of Congress for doing so.What is the Fifth Amendment?The Fifth Amendment was ratified in 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights. It stipulates multiple key legal protections for Americans, including that no person “shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.” In other words, the amendment establishes the constitutional right to avoid self-incrimination.The American criminal justice system relies on the presumption that people are innocent until proven guilty; it’s ...