• Today’s vote: GOP senators on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci, who guided the US Covid-19 pandemic response, in contempt of Congress. • How we got here: The vote comes after Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times in a hearing last week, refusing to answer questions over concerns any answers would be used by Republicans in an attempt to bring charges against him. Committee Chair Sen. Rand Paul, who has long sought to blame the pandemic and shortcomings of the US response on Fauci, warned “there will be repercussions for your refusal to testify.” • What could happen next: Today’s vote could initiate a process that would result in the Justice Department considering whether to charge him with a crime.
The Senate committee vote today has only drawn a handful of public attendees, a far sparser crowd than those who packed into the room for Fauci’s testimony last week. The committee began debate Thursday morning before roughly two-dozen people who quietly observed Democrats’ efforts to table the contempt vote and Chairman Rand Paul’s rejections of their arguments. The atmosphere is a far cry from the electric one of last Wednesday, during which audible reactions to contentious moments, clapping when Fauci’s lawyer was removed from the room and laughing at times when the retired scientist invoked the Fifth Amendment, could be heard.
What will happen if the Senate panel votes to hold Fauci in contempt?
If the Senate committee votes to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress, Sen. Rand Paul has vowed to send the committee’s recommendation straight to the Justice Department, bypassing a full Senate vote in a move that’s likely to set up a high-stakes legal and political test for the Trump administration.
Paul has conceded that there is little precedent for bypassing a full Senate vote before asking the Justice Department to bring contempt charges — a decision that could pose a hurdle for any resulting attempt at prosecution.
“There is not a lot of precedent for a lot of this, but it isn’t law so there isn’t any exact procedure that it has to follow,” the senator told CNN on Tuesday. “It’s a referral, it’s a recommendation.”
Vice President JD Vance would then need to sign off on the committee’s circumvention of long-established rules due to his constitutional role as president of the Senate. Then it would be up to the Justice Department to decide whether to bring formal charges — charges that would all but certainly be challenged by Fauci’s lawyers, launching a likely lengthy legal battle.
Committee Republicans rejecting last-ditch efforts to derail the Fauci’s contempt vote
Sen. Rand Paul and GOP lawmakers are rejecting last-ditch efforts by Democrats to delay the vote to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt. Several Democrats brought up various motions to allow experts and Fauci’s legal counsel to offer testimony before they moved to the contempt vote – but Republicans called these attempts “intended to avoid accountability.”
The Republican majority on the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee voted down motions to table the vote raised by the Democrats.
Paul has vowed to send Fauci’s contempt referral directly to the Justice Department, bypassing the traditional practice of first holding a full Senate vote.
Paul frames Fauci contempt vote as crucial to defending committee’s subpoena power
Sen. Rand Paul on Thursday framed his committee’s vote to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt as necessary to ensure that Congress can conduct oversight on crucial issues, insisting that Fauci should not be able to defy a subpoena “without consequence.”
“We are voting on whether a witness who has received the benefit of a sweeping federal pardon can be ordered by this committee to answer questions and then defy that order without consequence,” Paul said in opening remarks ahead of the contempt vote in the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.
The Republican senator also insisted that Fauci would have faced “no risk” of prosecution if he testified on his Covid-era actions last week, despite Paul and others’ open acknowledgement in the run-up to the hearing that they hoped to get Fauci to perjure himself — potentially opening him up to new federal charges.
Fauci, who was preemptively pardoned by former President Joe Biden for his Covid-era actions, subsequently refused to answer lawmakers’ questions, invoking his Fifth Amendment rights more than 100 times.
“All he had to do was tell the truth,” Paul said on Thursday. “Documents tell only part of the story. Many of these questions can be answered only by Dr. Fauci. He he answered none of them.”
Ranking member Gary Peters warns of dire consequences of contempt vote
Gary Peters, the Democratic ranking member of the committee, used his opening remarks to decry the hearing and the contempt vote today. The hearing and the move to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt was done without bipartisan support, makes oversight more difficult and could erode an important constitutional right, he warned.
The committee “has a long and very proud history of conducting serious bipartisan oversight on behalf of the American people, Democrats and Republicans have worked together to follow the facts, compel information, and hold both Democratic and Republican administrations alike accountable,” he said. “That work depends on the credibility of this committee. It depends on the legitimacy of our investigations, and a recognition by witnesses, courts, and the public that Congress is exercising its powers dutifully.”
“The chairman is now asking the committee to take a vote that could harm our ability to conduct future investigations and disregards constitutional protections long recognized by the U.S. Senate, all without making a reliable case that there is a legal basis for holding Dr. Fauci in contempt,” he said.
The committee has convened ahead of contempt vote
The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee has convened ahead of its vote to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress.
The panel’s Chairman Sen. Rand Paul, and the top Democrat, Sen. Gary Peters, are expected to deliver opening remarks before the vote.
Why Fauci opted to invoke the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times last week
Dr. Anthony Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times during last week’s hearing on his Covid-era actions — and to hear him tell it, he had good reason for doing so.
The former government scientist opted not to answer lawmakers’ questions after Republicans openly acknowledged that the hearing was aimed at getting Fauci to perjure himself in his testimony.
Fauci received a pre-emptive pardon from former President Joe Biden for all of his actions from 2014 through January 2025. But if he testified, Fauci and his team worried, Republicans could seize on any small inconsistency to bring new charges accusing him of lying to Congress.
