Senate committee votes to hold Dr. Fauci in contempt of Congress

A Senate committee on Thursday voted along party lines to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress. The vote comes after Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times in a hearing last week, when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Dr Fauci refused to answer questions over concerns his responses would be used by Republicans to bring charges against him.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, the committee chairman who pressed for the contempt finding, said that constitutional protection did not apply because Fauci received a pardon from Democratic President Joe Biden last year, and thus did not have to worry about the threat of prosecution. Fauci and Democrats who unanimously opposed the contempt resolution said he had a well-founded fear of self-incrimination given a public desire by Republicans to seek his prosecution.

This vote now sets up a referral to the Department of Justice for potential investigation over whether the country’s long-time top infectious disease official properly exercised his constitutional rights. Fauci, in a statement last week explaining his decision to invoke his Fifth Amendment rights, said he had good reason to fear the possibility of criminal charges given what he said was Paul’s determination “to get me to say something, anything, that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, quote, behind bars, unquote.”