In a Washington hearing room charged with years of accumulated grievance, Dr. Anthony Fauci invoked his constitutional right to silence before a Republican-led Senate committee, declining to answer dozens of questions about his stewardship of America's pandemic response. The Fifth Amendment, a protection designed for exactly such moments of legal peril, became his shield against a political environment where some lawmakers have openly sought his prosecution. Though a presidential pardon from Joe Biden preceded this appearance, the legal terrain remained treacherous enough that silence, his att