Senate committee advances Fauci contempt resolution after COVID hearing

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee advanced a resolution Aug. 6 seeking to hold former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci in criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions under subpoena.

The committee approved the resolution by an official 8–5 party-line vote. Two additional Democratic “no” votes were recorded by proxy but, under committee rules, were excluded from the official tally.

Committee Chairman Rand Paul, R-Ky., framed the vote as an effort to obtain accountability for COVID policies.

“Americans lost the freedom to work, to worship, and to decide what went into their own bodies,” Paul said. “Silence does not honor them either. The American people deserve answers.”

The four-page resolution states that Fauci refused to answer questions pertinent to the committee’s investigation after Paul overruled his assertion of the Fifth Amendment and ordered him to respond. It would authorize the president of the Senate to certify the committee’s report to the U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., for possible prosecution.

Such resolutions ordinarily proceed to the full Senate, where the Fauci measure would probably require 60 votes and therefore Democratic support. Paul, however, said he intends to bypass that step and send the referral directly to the Justice Department.

“We have voted the majority to refer this, so that will be accomplished today,” Paul told reporters.

Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., the committee’s ranking Democrat, unsuccessfully sought to delay consideration until Paul agreed to submit the measure to the full Senate. Democrats offered five postponement motions, all of which failed along party lines.

Peters argued before the vote that criminal contempt would punish Fauci but would not compel him to provide the information lawmakers seek. He also maintained that a committee cannot unilaterally assert the full Senate’s institutional authority.

“No one Member or group of Members may speak for the Senate as a whole,” Peters wrote, warning that bypassing the chamber could weaken future congressional investigations.

As Zeale News previously reported, Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times during a contentious July 29 hearing. He refused to answer questions about federal funding that reached the Wuhan Institute of Virology, gain-of-function research, intelligence-agency contacts, COVID restrictions, and the preservation of government records.

Paul ruled that Fauci’s privilege against self-incrimination did not apply to conduct covered by former President Joe Biden’s sweeping pardon. The pardon protects Fauci from prosecution for covered federal offenses arising from his government service between Jan. 1, 2014, and Jan. 19, 2025.

Paul also argued that Fauci waived any remaining privilege by delivering an opening statement addressing his government service, congressional testimony, and records released by the committee.

Fauci and his attorneys maintain that he could still face prosecution for alleged conduct outside the pardon’s scope, including any claimed false statement made after it was issued. Fauci accused Paul of trying to induce him to say something that could be used to fulfill the senator’s repeated calls for his prosecution.

The contempt vote came hours after Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., announced that his Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations had obtained from the Department of Health and Human Services a copy of the government iPhone Fauci used during the pandemic.

“Hopefully, this device will address many of the questions he refused to answer at last week’s hearing,” Johnson wrote. He said during the Aug. 6 meeting that his investigation was “just beginning.”