{"id":4638,"date":"2026-08-06T15:14:43","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T15:14:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextstoryus.com\/?p=4638"},"modified":"2026-08-06T15:14:43","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T15:14:43","slug":"senate-committee-votes-to-hold-dr-anthony-fauci-in-contempt-of-congress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextstoryus.com\/?p=4638","title":{"rendered":"Senate committee votes to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u2022 Today\u2019s vote:\u00a0GOP senators on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci, who guided the US Covid-19 pandemic response,\u00a0in contempt of Congress. \u2022\u00a0How we got here:\u00a0The vote comes after Fauci\u00a0invoked the Fifth Amendment\u00a0more 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\u00a0long sought\u00a0to blame the pandemic and shortcomings of the US response on Fauci, warned \u201cthere will be repercussions for your refusal to testify.\u201d \u2022\u00a0What could happen next:\u00a0Today\u2019s vote could initiate a process that would result in the\u00a0Justice Department considering whether to charge\u00a0him with a crime.<\/h2>\n<\/header>\n
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\"Rand<\/p>\n

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\u2019s testimony last week. The committee began debate Thursday morning before roughly two-dozen people who quietly observed Democrats\u2019 efforts to table the contempt vote and Chairman Rand Paul\u2019s 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\u2019s lawyer was removed from the room and laughing at times when the retired scientist invoked the Fifth Amendment, could be heard.<\/p>\n

What will happen if the Senate panel votes to hold Fauci in contempt?<\/h2>\n

\"Chairman<\/p>\n

If the Senate committee votes to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress, Sen. Rand Paul has vowed to send the committee\u2019s recommendation straight to the Justice Department, bypassing a full Senate vote in a move that\u2019s likely to set up a high-stakes legal and political test for the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

Paul has conceded that there is little precedent for bypassing a full Senate vote before asking the Justice Department to bring contempt charges \u2014 a decision that could pose a hurdle for any resulting attempt at prosecution.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is not a lot of precedent for a lot of this, but it isn\u2019t law so there isn\u2019t any exact procedure that it has to follow,\u201d the senator told CNN on Tuesday. \u201cIt\u2019s a referral, it\u2019s a recommendation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vice President JD Vance would then need to sign off on the committee\u2019s 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 \u2014 charges that would all but certainly be challenged by Fauci\u2019s lawyers, launching a likely lengthy legal battle.<\/p>\n

Committee Republicans rejecting last-ditch efforts to derail the Fauci’s contempt vote<\/h2>\n

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\u2019s legal counsel to offer testimony before they moved to the contempt vote \u2013 but Republicans called these attempts \u201cintended to avoid accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Republican majority on the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee voted down motions to table the vote raised by the Democrats.<\/p>\n

Paul has vowed to send Fauci\u2019s contempt referral directly to the Justice Department, bypassing the traditional practice of first holding a full Senate vote.<\/p>\n

Paul frames Fauci contempt vote as crucial to defending committee’s subpoena power<\/h2>\n

\"Sen.<\/p>\n

Sen. Rand Paul on Thursday framed his committee\u2019s 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 \u201cwithout consequence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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,\u201d Paul said in opening remarks ahead of the contempt vote in the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.<\/p>\n

The Republican senator also insisted that Fauci would have faced \u201cno risk\u201d of prosecution if he testified on his Covid-era actions last week, despite Paul and others\u2019 open acknowledgement in the run-up to the hearing that they hoped to get Fauci to perjure himself \u2014 potentially opening him up to new federal charges.<\/p>\n

Fauci, who was preemptively pardoned by former President Joe Biden for his Covid-era actions, subsequently refused to answer lawmakers\u2019 questions, invoking his Fifth Amendment rights more than 100 times.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll he had to do was tell the truth,\u201d Paul said on Thursday. \u201cDocuments tell only part of the story. Many of these questions can be answered only by Dr. Fauci. He he answered none of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ranking member Gary Peters warns of dire consequences of contempt vote<\/h2>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The committee \u201chas 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,\u201d he said. \u201cThat 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The committee has convened ahead of contempt vote<\/h2>\n

The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee has convened ahead of its vote to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress.<\/p>\n

The panel\u2019s Chairman Sen. Rand Paul, and the top Democrat, Sen. Gary Peters, are expected to deliver opening remarks before the vote.<\/p>\n

Why Fauci opted to invoke the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times last week<\/h2>\n
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Dr. Anthony Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times during last week\u2019s hearing on his Covid-era actions \u2014 and to hear him tell it, he had good reason for doing so.<\/p>\n

The former government scientist opted not to answer lawmakers\u2019 questions after Republicans openly acknowledged that the hearing was aimed at getting Fauci to perjure himself in his testimony.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, \u2018behind bars,\u2019\u201d Fauci said of committee chair Sen. Rand Paul during his opening statement last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cTherefore, although it pains me to do so because of the respect that I have for the legislative branch of government and my decadeslong record of cooperating with Congress, under the advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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Sen. Paul previously tried \u2014 and failed \u2014 to secure DOJ probes of Fauci<\/h2>\n

The 8-7 party-line vote Thursday in the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee represents a major new milestone in the GOP\u2019s targeting of Dr. Anthony Fauci.<\/p>\n

But for committee chair Sen. Rand Paul, it\u2019s far from the first time he\u2019s tried to get Fauci thrown in jail.<\/p>\n

Paul previously pressed the Justice Department to investigate Fauci during the Biden era, to no avail. After President Donald Trump took office, he renewed that request, arguing\u00a0in a letter\u00a0to then-Attorney General Pam Bondi last July that the government should examine whether Fauci\u2019s preemptive pardon was legitimate.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew information has revealed that these pardons were executed via autopen, with no documented confirmation that the President personally reviewed or approved each individual grant of clemency,\u201d Paul wrote, citing reports that then-President Joe Biden had authorized his staff to affix his signature to a slew of clemency actions.<\/p>\n

Several prominent Republicans, including Trump, have questioned Biden\u2019s use of the autopen to grant pardons and approve other actions.<\/p>\n

But none have formally challenged their authenticity, and the Justice Department never appeared to take any action on Paul\u2019s request.<\/p>\n

More recently, even Trump appeared reticent to criticize Biden\u2019s pardons, telling reporters last month that Fauci \u201cwas pardoned by Biden, and I respect that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why Republicans are holding a contempt vote today \u2014 and why Fauci might not be safe<\/h2>\n

Dr. Anthony Fauci received\u00a0a very broad pardon\u00a0from President Joe Biden that covered virtually anything related to his government service between January 2014 and January 2025.<\/p>\n

In other words, Fauci is already immune from prosecution for many of the potential alleged crimes Sen. Rand Paul and the committee\u2019s Republicans could try to link him to from the Covid era.<\/p>\n

But whether it was enough for Fauci to plead the Fifth and be done with it is a\u00a0major unanswered question.<\/p>\n

There is\u00a0a tension\u00a0between Fifth Amendment protections and Congress\u2019 investigative authority. And witnesses who claim they are protected from answering questions can be called upon to justify that in court and can be held in contempt.<\/p>\n

In announcing his plans to\u00a0schedule a contempt vote\u00a0for Fauci last week, Paul said: \u201cIt\u2019s against the law to obstruct an investigation of Congress. There will be repercussions for your refusal to testify.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2022 Today\u2019s vote:\u00a0GOP senators on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci, who guided the US Covid-19 pandemic response,\u00a0in contempt of Congress. \u2022\u00a0How … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3333,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,21,22,1,5,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aita","category-daily-article","category-reddit-stories","category-story","category-story-daily","category-viral-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nextstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nextstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nextstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nextstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nextstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4638"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nextstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4639,"href":"https:\/\/nextstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4638\/revisions\/4639"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nextstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nextstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nextstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nextstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}