The Senate Homeland Security Committee voted Thursday to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress after he refused to answer questions during a hearing last week, marking an escalation in Republican efforts to hold the retired infectious disease expert accountable for his role in the government’s pandemic response.
The GOP-led committee voted 8 to 7 on the contempt resolution, with all Democrats opposing and two voting by proxy. Committee Chair Rand Paul said the panel would send the contempt referral directly to the Justice Department rather than to the full Senate floor, bypassing the typical procedural step.
Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 111 times during the three-hour hearing on July 29, refusing to answer any questions posed by committee members. In his opening statement, Fauci said Paul had an “unhinged obsession” with him and accused the senator of trying to trap him into saying something that could be used against him legally.
The central legal dispute centers on whether Fauci can invoke Fifth Amendment protections despite receiving a preemptive pardon from President Biden covering federal offenses from January 1, 2014, through January 19, 2025. Republicans argue the pardon eliminates his need for the protection, while Fauci’s attorneys contend he still faces potential state-level prosecution and could be charged if he lied during his current testimony.
Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, cited a 1896 Supreme Court ruling during the hearing to argue that Fauci had no Fifth Amendment rights. “You don’t have any rights under the Fifth Amendment because you’ve been pardoned, as you very well know,” Hawley said. But the pardon covers only federal crimes, leaving open the possibility of state prosecution—a threat Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has already made.
Democrats on the committee argued that Fauci retained his constitutional protections. “A federal pardon does not eliminate an individual’s Fifth Amendment protection if they still face a ‘real and appreciable’ risk of federal or state prosecution,” said Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, the committee’s ranking Democrat. Peters also warned that Paul’s approach would set a dangerous precedent for future congressional oversight.
Paul has long accused Fauci of misleading the public about the origins of COVID-19. Days before the hearing, the senator released more than 1,000 pages of Fauci’s private diary entries, arguing they showed private uncertainty about the pandemic’s source. In his opening statement, Fauci said Paul had called for his imprisonment “more than 300 times this year alone” and that the hearing was designed to entrap him.
The contempt referral will go to U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, though it will ultimately be up to the Justice Department to decide whether to pursue charges. While prosecutions for contempt of Congress are rare, the Trump administration has shown willingness to pursue such cases: during the Biden administration, Trump allies Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro were both convicted of contempt-of-Congress charges and served prison time for refusing to comply with subpoenas related to the January 6 investigation.
Paul told reporters he intends to send the referral to the DOJ immediately rather than wait for a full Senate vote, citing the chamber’s August recess. “We still might come to the floor, but at this point, the first thing we will do is we will send it over as a recommendation from our committee,” Paul said. A full Senate vote would face challenges, as the contempt resolution would need 60 votes to advance—a threshold it would almost certainly fail to meet given Democratic opposition.
Sources
- CBS News — Senate committee contempt vote count, vote details, and Paul’s statement on DOJ referral
- NPR — Committee vote details, Fauci’s opening statement, Fifth Amendment protections, Biden pardon scope
- The Hill — Committee vote scheduled, Republican and Democratic arguments, pardon legal dispute, precedent of Bannon and Navarro prosecutions
