As American politics have become more polarized in the era of former President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement, we also hear it sound more paranoid.

The dueling scandals of Trump’s hush-money trial in New York, where he was found guilty on all 34 felony counts, and the beginning of Hunter Biden’s trial on three felony gun charges in Delaware provide ample material for fear and anger, rational or otherwise, on both political sides.

But hardly anyone’s life and reputation have been buffeted by conspiracy theories more than 83-year-old Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who later joined the White House Coronavirus Task Force in January 2020 before stepping down in 2022.

Appearing voluntarily at a House subcommittee on the very serious topic of the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Fauci knew he would be fielding every controversial question that rose up during and after that fraught period. After all, the........

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