Senate panel sends Fauci contempt referral to Justice Department

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted Thursday to hold Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress, an 8-to-5 party-line vote that followed his refusal to answer questions at a hearing last week about his role before and during the Covid-19 pandemic. The committee is led by Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican who has pursued Fauci for years. Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, appeared under subpoena on July 29.

Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 100 times during the July 29 hearing, according to accounts from CNN and Fox News. Paul told reporters that the committee would hand-deliver the contempt referral the same day to the Justice Department and to the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. If the government pursues a conviction, the penalty can reach $100,000 in fines and one to 12 months in prison, StatNews reported.

Republican senators had planned to question Fauci about whether research funded by the National Institutes of Health in China played a role in how the pandemic began, about the lab leak theory, about whether his agency financed gain-of-function research at a laboratory in Wuhan, and about differences between his private diary entries and his public statements, ABC News reported. Fauci declined to answer each line of questioning, consulting with his attorney throughout the session.

David Schertler, Fauci's lawyer, said in a statement after the vote that it was 'a crude political stunt intended to punish Dr. Fauci for exercising his constitutional rights,' and urged the Senate to reject the resolution. In his opening statement at the hearing, Fauci said he was invoking the Fifth because of Paul's 'obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution' and his 'repeated slanderous comments.' Fauci also told the committee that Paul had an 'unhinged obsession with me.'

What happens next

A committee contempt resolution normally goes to the full Senate for a vote before any referral. Paul argued that step is not required and said he would send the matter directly to the Justice Department, telling CBS News on Wednesday, 'We will send it to the Department of Justice tomorrow so there's no delay.' A floor vote would be subject to the filibuster, requiring 60 votes. Republicans hold 53 seats, so it would need Democratic support to advance.

Whether the referral leads anywhere rests with the Justice Department. A department spokesperson said, 'The Department seriously reviews all congressional referrals,' without committing to an investigation, Axios reported. Democrats noted that a criminal contempt finding would not force Fauci to answer the committee's questions. Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, the panel's ranking Democrat, said the resolution would not produce new information for the committee and warned that it could weaken future oversight efforts.

Central to the dispute is a pardon that President Joe Biden granted Fauci before leaving office. NPR reported that it covers conduct between January 2014 and January 2025, and that Biden described it as preemptive given Republican scrutiny of Fauci. Paul has argued that the pardon removes any risk of prosecution, so Fauci had no basis to stay silent. 'Dr. Fauci faced no risk of federal prosecution. All he had to do was tell the truth,' Paul said before the vote.

Legal analysts said the question is less settled than Paul suggested. The pardon would not shield Fauci from prosecution for anything he said in current testimony, NPR reported, including statements that could open new lines of inquiry. Abbe Smith, a Georgetown Law professor, told NBC News that the Republicans' claims did not appear correct, saying, 'There would have to be some sort of legal understanding about the nature of the pardon and whether it is limitless, and those pre-emptive pardons, those are unique.'

The Democratic objection

Democrats sought to table the vote and argued that Paul's inquiry was partisan and rushed. Peters said the effort would make future oversight harder because witnesses could cite the vote as a reason not to appear at all. He also said the resolution would not compel Fauci to comply. Democrats framed the move as an attempt to place the 85-year-old former official in legal jeopardy by forcing statements that could feed new investigations, Axios reported.

To be clear, this resolution will not provide the committee with any additional information or compel Dr. Fauci to provide answers to our inquiries.

Republicans countered that Fauci had forfeited his Fifth Amendment protection. They argued he 'waived' the right by delivering an opening statement on subject matter relevant to the committee's questions, NBC News reported. Paul said the vote concerned only Fauci's refusal to comply with a direction to answer, not his pandemic decisions. He said the committee was not judging Fauci's opinions or policies, but whether a pardoned witness could defy an order to answer without consequence.

The contempt vote is not the only pressure on Fauci. Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said his subcommittee had obtained the iPhone that Fauci used during the pandemic and had invited him for a transcribed interview, adding that his investigation had 'just begun.' House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer said his panel also wanted to question Fauci about the journal entries. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said he was opening a state investigation, StatNews reported.

Inside the July hearing

The contempt referral grew out of a hearing that Paul convened on July 29 before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Fauci, a target of the political right since he served as a top health official during the pandemic, had been subpoenaed to appear. In his opening remarks, he said he expected Republicans to use his testimony to build a prosecution, and he declined to answer questions from members of both parties.

The session ran about three hours, according to Al Jazeera. Paul directed Capitol Police to remove Schertler after the lawyer tried to speak without being recognized by the committee, telling him the testimony was Fauci's and 'not a game with his lawyers.' Schertler later described the proceeding as an 'obsessive vendetta.' Ahead of the hearing, Paul had released more than 1,000 pages of Fauci's typewritten journal entries from his time leading the government's pandemic response.

The journal entries have become a focus of Paul's inquiry. He said they showed differences between Fauci's private discussions and his public statements. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the notes were government records because they were written by a federal employee on a government computer during a public health emergency, Al Jazeera reported. Fauci's supporters said the entries reflected the uncertainty that scientists faced as they learned about a new virus.

What the record shows

Criminal contempt prosecutions are rare, but two former Trump advisers, Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, were imprisoned on such charges during the Biden administration, NPR reported. Some Democrats said Fauci could face a similar path, pointing to prosecutions of former officials whom President Trump has criticized, including former FBI Director James Comey. Sen. Bernie Moreno called the vote 'a small amount of justice,' describing it as a first step toward prosecuting Fauci.

A Republican-led subcommittee that examined the pandemic's origins in 2024 found no evidence linking Fauci to wrongdoing, according to ABC News. The Justice Department has not said whether it will act on the referral, and Paul acknowledged that a full Senate vote might not follow. He said the committee could still bring the resolution to the floor after the August recess, adding, 'No one said that we won't put it before the Senate. We'll see what happens over time.'