Anthony Fauci declined Wednesday to testify at a Senate hearing on Covid, saying he was invoking the Fifth Amendment in order to avoid baseless prosecution by Republicans.

In his opening statement to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Fauci said that Chairman Rand Paul (R-KY) was attempting to use the hearing to satisfy his “obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution.”

“The sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something, anything, that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, ‘behind bars,’” Fauci said. He added that he believed that his previous cooperation with various congressional committees “proved that I believe in and respect the value of legitimate congressional oversight.”

Paul declared that Fauci would face consequences for his decision to invoke the Fifth Amendment. “It’s against the law to obstruct an investigation of Congress,” the senator said. “There will be repercussions to your refusal to testify today.”