Senate committee votes to hold Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress

The former public health official refused to answer questions during a tense Senate hearing last week as lawmakers raked him over the coals for his response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Dr. Anthony Fauci is sworn in before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee at the Capitol, Wednesday, July 29, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert) WASHINGTON (CN) — A top Senate panel on Thursday voted to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress, the latest escalation against the longtime public health official targeted by the right over his response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee pointed to Fauci’s refusal to answer questions from lawmakers during a contentious hearing last week, where the infectious disease expert repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, chairman of the panel and longtime Fauci critic, said during a committee meeting Thursday morning that the contempt vote was not aimed at the former National Institutes of Health director’s past statements or Covid-19 policy but instead at whether Fauci — who received a pardon from former President Joe Biden — could legally avoid answering questions from Congress. “Documents tell only part of the story,” said Paul. “Some of these questions can only be answered by Dr. Fauci. He answered none of them.” The Kentucky senator and other Republicans have claimed that because Fauci was pardoned he should not have been allowed to “defy” an order to provide sworn testimony to Congress. But Democrats and critics of the effort to force Fauci to testify have countered that Republicans such as Paul have long expressed a desire to prosecute the former public health official and that he was within his rights to plead the Fifth. “If this committee now seeks to punish a witness for asserting their constitutional protected Fifth Amendment rights, future witnesses will argue that appearing before Congress exposes them to punishment, regardless of whether they comply with the subpoena and invoke a constitutional protection,” said Michigan Representative Gary Peters, the top Democrat on the Homeland Security committee. Democrats on the panel repeatedly tried to block a vote on the proposed contempt resolution, but the measure ultimately passed on an 8-5 vote along party lines. Typically, contempt resolutions that pass committees must be approved by the full Senate — if they clear that hurdle lawmakers can refer the offending person to the Justice Department for prosecution. But it’s unlikely that the Senate can garner the 60 votes required to pass a contempt resolution against Fauci. Still, Paul signaled that he would attempt an end-run around the process, telling reporters following Thursday’s meeting that he would refer the committee-passed contempt resolution to the Justice Department without Senate approval. That gambit, however, is likely illegal. A Justice Department spokesperson told Courthouse News in a statement that the agency “seriously reviews all congressional referrals.” The Trump administration could decide independently of Congress to prosecute Fauci. Such a case would likely be compiled by D.C.’s U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, who would need to secure an indictment from a grand jury. Pirro, though, has on several occasions failed to secure indictments in cases important to the president’s political agenda. As of Thursday morning, Senate Republican leadership had yet to schedule any vote on the committee-passed contempt resolution. Fauci appeared before the Homeland Security committee last week in response to a subpoena sent by Senate Republicans. During the tense hearing, GOP lawmakers hammered the former public health official over his leadership during the Covid-19 pandemic and pressed him on claims that the virus originated from a laboratory in China. Though Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment rights more than 100 times