Global Politics06 August, 20263 min read
Senate Committee Votes To Hold Anthony Fauci In Contempt, Refers Him To Justice Department
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
Senate Homeland Security Committee approved contempt resolution 8–5 against Fauci for Fifth Amendment refusal. Referal to the Justice Department for potential prosecution of Fauci.
Contempt Referral Approved
A Senate committee voted to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress and refer him to the Justice Department after he refused to answer questions at a hearing focused on his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The party-line vote came after Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 100 times when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on July 29.
Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, the committee chairman, said that constitutional protection did not apply because Fauci received a pardon from Democratic President Joe Biden.
Paul framed the vote as whether a witness who has received a sweeping pardon can be ordered to answer questions and then defy that order without consequences, and the committee was expected to meet Thursday, Aug. 5 at 8:30 a.m. EDT.
The referral goes to the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, which will decide whether to investigate or potentially attempt to prosecute the doctor for contempt.
Fifth Amendment Dispute
Fauci and Democrats who opposed the contempt resolution said he had a well-founded fear of self-incrimination given a public desire by Republicans to seek his prosecution.
Paul said at the outset of a hearing, "Dr. Fauci faced no risk of federal prosecution," and added, "All he had to do was tell the truth."
In a statement explaining his decision to invoke his Fifth Amendment rights, Fauci said he had good reason to fear the possibility of criminal charges given what he said was Paul’s determination "to get me to say something, anything, that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, quote, behind bars, unquote."
The Telemundo report said the Senate National Security Committee approved the contempt resolution 8 to 5 along party lines, and it also said two Democratic senators voted against it by proxy.
Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan argued the committee’s vote would create a “harmful precedent” that would cause future congressional witnesses to resist testifying.
What Comes Next
The Senate committee may refer the contempt resolution directly to the Department of Justice or request that Senate Majority Leader John Thune convene a full Senate vote, and the Telemundo report said the Democrats’ effort to postpone was rejected along party lines.
If Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, decides to pursue the case, her office would need to obtain a formal indictment from a grand jury in the district, where the reports described a mixed track record.
The Infobae report said the contempt of Congress is a misdemeanor under 2 U.S.C. § 192 with a maximum penalty of 12 months in prison and a fine of up to USD 100.000, and it said the Justice Department is not legally required to prosecute the referral.
Infobae also reported that the president Donald Trump told Reuters the department “should potentially process” Fauci and compared the situation to his exadvisers Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, who served four months in prison after refusing to declare before a committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
The New York Times described the legal debate as the tension between the scope of a presidential pardon and that of the Fifth Amendment, noting that the Biden pardon protected Fauci from federal prosecution for actions from 2014 through January 19, 2025.