Senate panel votes to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress
- The San Juan Daily Star
- 2 hours ago
- 4 min read
By KATE KELLY
The Senate Homeland Security Committee voted along party lines Thursday to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress for his refusal to answer questions at a hearing last week, clearing the way for the committee to ask the Justice Department to prosecute him.
The vote to adopt a formal resolution holding Fauci in contempt does not address Republicans’ core allegation, that he funded research in China that set off the coronavirus pandemic and lied about it to Congress. Fauci vigorously denies that assertion.
Instead, the resolution accuses Fauci of failing to comply with a congressional subpoena, a federal misdemeanor that carries a prison sentence up to 12 months.
In a statement after the hearing, Fauci’s lawyer, David Schertler, called the vote “a crude political stunt intended to punish Dr. Fauci for exercising his constitutional rights.”
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., the committee’s chair, said after the hearing that the panel would hand-deliver the resolution to the Justice Department later Thursday, and would also deliver a copy to the U.S. attorney in Washington, who could bring a case to a grand jury.
Democrats protested that Paul was circumventing federal law, which requires that the president of the Senate “certify” the “statement of facts” in a contempt resolution before it is transmitted to the U.S. attorney. For that to happen, the full Senate would have to adopt the resolution with a 60-vote majority, which is highly unlikely.
Even with the resolution, prosecution of Fauci is not guaranteed. Paul has already informally referred Fauci twice for prosecution. President Donald Trump, who said after last week’s hearing that he has “never been a big fan” of Fauci, did not say that he wants to see the doctor prosecuted.
Asked about Fauci’s decision to take the Fifth Amendment, the president said, “His lawyer told him to.” During his first administration, the president awarded Fauci a medal for his work as part of Operation Warp Speed, the fast-track initiative to develop a COVID-19 vaccine.
Trump’s social media post before last week’s hearing was also telling. Instead of criticizing Fauci’s pandemic response, he derided the weak first pitch Fauci threw at a Washington Nationals game six years ago.
Thursday’s vote followed a spirited debate in which Democrats, one by one, introduced motions to postpone consideration of the resolution. In rapid fire, those motions failed along party lines, and Paul eventually cut the Democrats’ effort short.
Republicans argued that because Fauci received a “preemptive” presidential pardon from President Joe Biden, he was not entitled to invoke his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent. Democrats said Fauci had reason to fear testifying, given that Paul has said repeatedly that Fauci should be “in prison.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., argued that before taking the “immensely historic step” of holding Fauci in contempt, the committee needed to at least “hear from his counsel as to what he feared.” Paul threw Fauci’s lawyer, Schertler, out of the hearing last week after Schertler tried to speak.
Paul said the committee faced a simple question: “The chair directed Anthony Fauci to answer. He refused. That is what we are voting on today — not his opinions, not his policies, not anything he said from the podium six years ago. We are voting on whether a witness who has received the benefit of a federal pardon can be ordered by this committee to answer questions and then defy that order without consequence.”
Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, the top Democrat on the committee, accused Paul of conducting a “rushed investigation” without Democrats’ participation. He warned that if the committee approved the resolution holding Fauci in contempt, it would discourage others from testifying in the future.
“This committee should not damage its future investigative authority to advance the chairman’s yearslong campaign against single individuals,” Peters said.
The vote followed another twist in Republicans’ investigation of Fauci. On Wednesday night, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., the chair of the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, said he had received a copy of Fauci’s government-issued cellphone. “Hopefully this device will address many of the questions he refused to answer at last week’s hearing,” Johnson wrote on social media.
Thursday’s vote represents only part of Fauci’s travails on Capitol Hill. Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said after last week’s hearing that he would be “asking Dr. Fauci whether he stands by his previous testimony to our committee.”
Florida’s attorney general, James Uthmeier, also vowed after last week’s hearing to investigate Fauci.
Paul has accused Fauci of funding research in China that led to the coronavirus pandemic, and lying about it to Congress, accusations that Fauci has vigorously denied.
Fauci, who appeared under subpoena, invoked his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent more than 100 times during last week’s hearing, as hostile Republicans battered him with questions about matters including the origins of COVID-19 and whether he used his position to enrich himself by enlisting staff members and colleagues to nominate him for cash awards.
Fauci’s pardon covers only his activities from 2014 through Jan. 19, 2025, Biden’s last full day in office. His allies said that if he testified and made a misstep, he would open himself up to possible perjury charges. Republicans on the panel said the pardon protects him so he was ineligible to take the Fifth.
On this issue, legal scholars disagree. Some said his invocation of the Fifth was proper because he was legally vulnerable. Others said the pardon offered him immunity.
Republicans on the Homeland Security panel said Fauci, who made a short statement before invoking his Fifth Amendment right, cannot both testify and refuse to testify at the same time.