Washington — The Senate Homeland Security Committee voted Thursday to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress over his refusal to answer questions during testimony before the committee last week, arguing that he inappropriately invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
“Holding a witness in contempt is a serious thing, and it should be rare,” Sen. Rand Paul, the committee chairman, said as the panel gathered Thursday. “But the contempt power exists for precisely this circumstance.”
The GOP-led committee voted 8 to 5 Thursday on the resolution to hold Fauci in contempt, with all Democrats opposing, and two more opposing by proxy vote. While the next step would typically be a vote on the Senate floor, Paul told CBS News that he intends to send the contempt resolution directly to the Justice Department as a referral.
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Last week, Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment in response to every question he was asked before the committee, where he appeared for a hearing under subpoena as part of the panel’s investigation into the origins of COVID-19.
Ahead of the hearing, Paul, a Kentucky Republican who has for years accused Fauci of misleading the public about the source of the outbreak, released more than 1,000 pages of Fauci’s journal entries from his time leading the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fauci cited the release in his opening statement before the committee, claiming Paul has an “obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution.”
“The only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something, anything, that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, quote, ‘behind bars,'” Fauci said of Paul.
While the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution grants people the right not to incriminate themselves, Paul has argued that Fauci couldn’t invoke the Fifth because he is already insulated from prosecution by a Biden-era pardon. Fauci’s attorney told CBS News last week that Fauci had “solid legal ground” in asserting his Fifth Amendment privilege. But Paul argues that it’s an unsettled legal question.
Ahead of the vote Thursday, Paul stressed that the panel wasn’t voting on Fauci’s opinions or policies, but the question of “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.”
“We only have one question: Whether to hold a witness responsible for his contempt toward Congress,” Paul said. “The witness had many chances to answer the questions pertinent to our investigation, and he made his decision 111 times.”
During the committee meeting Thursday morning, Democrats on the committee tried repeatedly to table or postpone the vote, but were blocked by the panel’s GOP majority.
Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, the top Democrat on the committee, spoke out against the resolution ahead of the vote, urging committee members to oppose it and arguing that it puts the credibility of the panel at risk for the sake of what he called Paul’s “years-long campaign against a single individual.”
“Criminal contempt is punitive. It does not compel a witness to answer questions or produce the documents we’d all like to see,” Peters said. “What it will do is create a damaging precedent that future witnesses will use to resist legitimate congressional oversight and weaken this committee’s ability to compel testimony.”
Republicans fast-track DOJ referral
While contempt of Congress resolutions are typically considered by the full Senate after a committee’s consideration, Paul has argued that the step isn’t required.
“We will send it to the Department of Justice tomorrow so there’s no delay,” Paul told reporters Wednesday. “That will be a committee recommendation.”
Paul said the full Senate could also vote after the chamber returns from August recess, which he noted would be up to GOP leaders. But he acknowledged that “there might not be” a point to doing so, with the prioritization of a DOJ recommendation.
The move to hold Fauci in contempt would all but certainly fall short of the 60-vote threshold needed to advance most legislation in the upper chamber. With 53 Republicans, it would require support from Democrats, who have widely come to Fauci’s defense in recent days.
The resolution dictates that the president of the Senate, Vice President JD Vance, certify the report detailing Fauci’s refusal to answer questions to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro. Whether to charge Fauci would be up to the Justice Department.
The Democrat-led Congress in 2021 and 2022 recommended contempt charges for several Trump allies for refusing to comply with subpoenas related to the investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The Justice Department charged Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, who were both found guilty and served months in prison.