Committee Votes on Party Lines To Hold Fauci in Contempt of Congress

A resolution to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress passed a Senate committee along party lines Thursday morning, eight days after Mr. Fauci involved his Fifth Amendment privileges 111 times in testimony under oath before the same panel.The contempt resolution finds that the nation’s former top public health official did not have grounds to exercise his Fifth Amendment privileges against self-incrimination during his July 29th testimony to the Senate Homeland Security Committee. Committee chairman Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, had “overruled” Mr. Fauci’s ability to invoke the Fifth Amendment, the resolution says, and therefore Mr. Fauci should have been compelled to answer questions. “Dr. Fauci faced no risk of federal prosecution,” Dr. Paul said prior to the vote. “All he had to was tell the truth.”Mr. Fauci received a sweeping pardon from former President Biden during the previous president’s last hours in office. It covered actions Dr. Fauci took from 2014 through January of 2025. Republicans have argued the effective immunity a pardon provides should have allowed Dr. Fauci to testify freely about his actions during the pandemic and in directing funding for gain of function research at a lab at Wuhan, China.Democrats repeatedly attempted to stall the contempt vote Thursday. Multiple Democratic senators on the committee offered resolutions to table the contempt vote and delay the proceeding. The Democratic ranking member, Gary Peters, decried a “one-sided investigation and a rushed process” before voting no on the contempt resolution. “Criminal contempt is punitive,” said Mr. Peters. “It does not compel the witness to answer questions or produce the documents we’d all like to see.”Senator Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire said she believed Dr. Paul’s actions were designed to target Dr. Fauci, whom she called “a dedicated public servant.” Multiple Democrats expressed concern at the precedent a contempt vote would set.After the vote, Dr. Fauci’s attorney, David Schertler, who was removed from the hearing room for violating Dr. Rand’s order that he sit behind the witness table, called the vote “a crude political stunt intended to punish Dr. Fauci for exercising his constitutional rights.”“The Senate should reject Senator Paul’s meritless and politically motivated contempt resolution,” Mr. Schertler said in a statement. “For years, Senator Paul has proclaimed to anyone who would listen that Dr. Fauci should be prosecuted and put in prison. Dr. Fauci has committed no crime — and Senator Paul knows it.”The contempt vote now sends a criminal referral to Washington D.C.’s U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro. Contempt of Congress can be punished by up to one year in prison and fines of up to $100,000. The decision on whether to charge Dr. Fauci will rest with Ms. Pirro.Dr. Fauci was head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 1984 to 2022, taking lead roles in the nation’s response to the AIDS crisis, Ebola and Covid-19 outbreaks during his long government career. He became the public face of the country’s response to the pandemic in early 2020, garnering household name identification and near deification from some Democrats but quickly became cast as a villain by Republicans. Despite an initially close relationship with President Donald Trump at the start of the pandemic and a vaccination rollout Mr. Trump still defends, relations between the two were rocky and broke down entirely after Mr. Biden assumed office.Last week, the president said he “inherited” Dr. Fauci when he took office and claimed Dr. Fauci advocated for a nationwide lockdown in 2020, which Mr. Trump as president had overruled.Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson said Thursday he had offered Dr. Fauci the chance to testify behind closed doors rather than in a public session. “Last week’s hearing just began the accountability,” Mr. Johnson said. “There’s a lot more accountability that’s required.”

Committee Votes on Party Lines To Hold Fauci in Contempt of Congress

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