Fauci held in contempt of Congress

The panel advanced the resolution on an 8 to 5 vote, with two senators also voting no by proxy, to rebuke the infectious disease expert for asserting his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination during congressional testimony.

Democrats decried the move, accusing their GOP colleagues of an "immensely historic step" and warning that the dramatic vote would erode the legislative branch's oversight powers.

"What it will do is create a damaging precedent that future witnesses will use to resist legitimate congressional oversight," Sen. Gary Peters, D-Michigan, the ranking member on the Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs, said. "Future witnesses will argue that appearing before Congress exposes them to punishment ... They will point directly to this vote as a justification for refusing to appear at all."

Over several contentious hours on July 29, Fauci was repeatedly pressured by GOP lawmakers to discuss a number of both professionally and personally sensitive issues, ranging from his actions as the nation's foremost pandemic expert to his own revealing diary entries.

Fauci's stonewalling, pleading the Fifth more than 100 times, enraged Republicans, most notably Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky. Paul, the chairman of the relevant committee, accused him of openly defying Congress.

"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 told lawmakers. "Any reasonable person who has followed his unhinged obsession with me would readily come to the same conclusion."

Paul has suggested at points that Fauci, his longtime political foe, should face prison time. Fauci stressed last week that it pained him to not answer senators' questions. He insisted he respected the legislative branch's authority and underlined his "decadeslong record of cooperating with Congress."

Before leaving office, former President Joe Biden issued a pardon to Fauci for any actions he took as a federal public health official between 2014 and 2025. That fact prompted Paul and other Republicans to claim that Fauci is immune from concerns about self-incrimination, something Fauci's lawyers and Democrats dispute, leaving a cloud of legal questions swirling around the political spectacle.

"Do you incriminate yourself if you have a pardon?" Paul wondered. "I think that question’s for the courts."

Democrats warned that Republicans, still incensed by COVID-era lockdowns and vaccine politics, were trying to lay a trap.

"The goal was to wait for Dr. Fauci to make any kind of misstatement," Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-New Hampshire, said, "and then have a weaponized Department of Justice file criminal charges for that new statement that would not have been covered by the pardon."

As larger legislative battles rage with the Senate about to leave town for August recess, it's not clear when, or if, the full chamber will ever take a vote on the contempt resolution. Paul also said he has the option, though, of sending his committee's criminal contempt referral directly to the Justice Department – a step he indicated he plans to take, despite Democrats' outrage at the plan.

"I’ve made the decision that I don’t want to waste time over waiting a month and a half," he told reporters.

Regardless of the next steps, Republicans are indicating they're not done with the country's former top doctor. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, said Thursday morning Fauci has already been invited back for a closed-door transcribed interview.

"Last week’s hearing just began the accountability," Johnson said. "There’s a lot more accountability that’s required."