Senate Republicans took another step Thursday in their effort to force Dr. Anthony Fauci to answer questions about the government’s COVID-19 response, voting to hold the former top health official in contempt of Congress after he repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved the contempt resolution on a party-line vote after Fauci refused to answer more than 100 questions during last week’s hearing, citing his constitutional right against self-incrimination.
Committee Chairman Rand Paul, R-Ky., had warned there would be “repercussions” after Fauci declined to testify, and moved quickly to follow through with a contempt referral.
Under Paul’s resolution, the matter would bypass a full Senate vote and instead be sent directly to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, allowing the Department of Justice to review the referral without waiting for action on the Senate floor.
Paul said he also wants the DOJ to weigh in on whether Fauci’s preemptive pardon from former President Joe Biden had any effect on his ability to invoke the Fifth Amendment.
“It’s a good legal discussion, and we will make those legal points to DOJ in sending the referral over,” Paul told Fox News Digital ahead of the hearing.
The latest showdown adds to the years-long clash between Paul and Fauci that began during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Paul has long accused the former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director of backing “risky” research tied to the alleged lab leak of the coronavirus in China and has repeatedly argued Fauci should face criminal consequences.
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Meanwhile, Senate investigators have expanded their review beyond Fauci’s testimony.
The Department of Health and Human Services, now led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has provided Senate investigators with a copy of Fauci’s pandemic-era cellphone, Fox News Digital confirmed.
The device was turned over to the Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, chaired by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., which operates under the Homeland Security Committee led by Paul.
The committee had already received more than 1,000 pages from Fauci’s personal diary before last week’s hearing. It remains unclear whether Johnson and Paul have direct access to the phone’s contents.
House Republicans are also ramping up their own investigation.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., has indicated his panel is not finished with Fauci following last week’s hearing.
After Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment, Comer questioned whether Biden’s blanket pardon shielded him from answering lawmakers’ questions and said the House planned additional questioning.
“If former President Biden’s blanket autopen pardon is valid, then Dr. Fauci has no right to refuse to answer questions,” Comer said, noting his committee had done extensive work probing the autopen pardons. “Based on the release of Dr. Fauci’s diary, which should have been provided to the House Oversight Committee last Congress…we’ll be asking Dr. Fauci whether he stands by his previous testimony to our Committee.”
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