Senate Panel Votes to Hold Anthony Fauci in Criminal Contempt for Invoking the Fifth Amendment

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted along party lines on Thursday, Aug. 6 to hold Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress, a week after he invoked the Fifth Amendment and declined to answer questions at a July 29 hearing on the government's COVID-19 response. Chairman Rand Paul directed the resolution to the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia rather than to the full Senate, which would require 60 votes. Fauci had said Paul held "an unhinged obsession" with him. His attorney, David Schertler, called the vote "a crude political stunt intended to punish Dr. Fauci for exercising his constitutional rights."

Referring a witness for criminal prosecution over an assertion of a constitutional privilege tests the line between congressional oversight and punishment of that privilege. Ranking Democrat Gary Peters said criminal contempt "does not compel a witness to answer questions" and would set a precedent future witnesses could use to resist oversight. Fauci's 2025 preemptive pardon from President Biden covers conduct through January 2025 but not current testimony.

It is now up to the Justice Department to decide whether to charge. On Aug. 14, Fauci's attorneys separately declined Sen. Ron Johnson's request for a transcribed subcommittee interview.