The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted 8-5 along party lines Thursday to advance a resolution holding Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions under subpoena.
Republicans on the committee, led by Chairman Rand Paul, R-Ky., supported the resolution. All five Democrats opposed it.
The Justice Department confirmed to the Associated Press that it had received Paul’s contempt referral and was reviewing it.
If adopted, the Senate resolution would direct the president of the Senate to certify the committee’s report to the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia for possible prosecution.
Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., the committee’s ranking member, disputed Paul’s authority to refer the matter without approval from the full Senate. Peters said Senate rules and precedent require the resolution to receive 60 votes in the full chamber.
Paul defended the committee’s action by citing the pandemic’s toll and the need for answers.
“The American people deserve answers,” Paul said.
The vote came eight days after Fauci appeared before the committee on July 29 and repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination.
The committee subpoenaed Fauci on June 22 and directed him to testify about COVID-19’s origins, risky life-sciences research and his work as a federal employee. A revised subpoena issued July 17 moved the hearing’s starting time to 8:30 a.m.
Fauci delivered prepared testimony about his federal service, previous testimony to Congress and records released by the committee, according to the resolution. He then said he would decline to answer the committee’s questions under the Fifth Amendment.
Paul rejected Fauci’s Fifth Amendment claim. He found that the protection did not apply to questions concerning the period covered by Fauci’s January 2025 pardon and ruled that Fauci had waived it by testifying on related subjects, according to the resolution.
Paul directed Fauci to answer and warned that he could be held in contempt. Fauci again refused.
Then-President Joe Biden issued Fauci a full and unconditional pardon on Jan. 19, 2025. The Justice Department pardon warrant covers federal offenses Fauci may have committed from Jan. 1, 2014, through the pardon date that arose from his government service.
The pardon covers Fauci’s work as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force or White House COVID-19 Response Team, and chief medical adviser to the president.
Paul maintains that the pardon removed Fauci’s Fifth Amendment protection for questions concerning conduct covered by the pardon. Peters argues that the contempt resolution lacks a legal basis and threatens witnesses’ constitutional rights.
“A Committee vote to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in criminal contempt of Congress will not provide the Committee with additional information from Dr. Fauci,” Peters wrote in a letter to committee members before the vote.
Criminal contempt could punish Fauci but would not compel him to answer more questions, Peters said. He also warned that bypassing the full Senate could weaken its investigative and oversight authority.
The committee is investigating risky life-sciences research and the origins of the COVID-19 virus. Peters said the Senate has pursued criminal contempt only once in the past 50 years.
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