{"id":219724,"date":"2026-08-07T04:40:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T04:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/us-senate-panel-votes-to-hold-fauci-in-contempt-of-congress-over-covid-hearing-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T04:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T04:40:10","slug":"us-senate-panel-votes-to-hold-fauci-in-contempt-of-congress-over-covid-hearing-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/us-senate-panel-votes-to-hold-fauci-in-contempt-of-congress-over-covid-hearing-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"US Senate panel votes to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress over Covid hearing – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anthony Fauci\u2019s lawyer condemned the vote from the Republican-controlled committee as a \u2018crude political stunt\u2019
US politics live \u2013 latest updates<\/a>
A Republican-controlled US Senate committee voted to hold Dr Anthony Fauci<\/a> in contempt of Congress after the veteran public health official repeatedly pleaded the fifth amendment to parry a hostile inquisition into his stewardship of the response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Fauci, the former director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (Niaid), who led the agency for 38 years before retiring in 2022<\/a>, gave the same response to dozens of questions while refusing to give clarifying answers during a tense hearing last week<\/a>, citing his constitutional protections.
The Senate homeland security and government affairs committee voted in favor of referring a potential criminal case against Fauci to the US Department of Justice.
The vote was condemned as \u201cshameful\u201d and a \u201ccrude political stunt\u201d by Fauci\u2019s lawyer, David Schertler, who was forcibly ejected from last week\u2019s hearing when he tried to speak on behalf of his client.
The committee is chaired by the Republican Kentucky senator Rand Paul, whom Fauci last week accused of having an \u201cunhinged obsession\u201d with him as he refused to answer questions at the hearing.
Paul insisted on Thursday that he wasn\u2019t trying to entrap Fauci. \u201cHe had no liability if he told the truth,\u201d Paul said.
\u201cThe chair directed Anthony Fauci<\/a> to answer. He refused,\u201d Paul said in his opening statement. \u201cThat is what we are voting on today \u2013 not his opinions, not his policies, not anything he said from the podium six years ago.
\u201cWe are voting on whether a witness who has received the benefit of a sweeping federal pardon can be ordered by this committee to answer questions and then defy that order without consequence.\u201d
But top Democrats criticized the Republican-led process. The Michigan senator Gary Peters, the ranking Democrat on the Senate panel, argued that the drive to subpoena Fauci, and now to hold him in contempt, accomplished nothing to advance public health.
Paul\u2019s work amounted to \u201ca one-sided investigation and a rushed process \u2026 that could harm our ability to conduct future investigations\u201d, said Peters.
While a contempt referral must typically be approved by the full Senate after a congressional committee, this would probably require a 60-vote majority \u2013 requiring Democratic support.
Paul acknowledged this standard path on Wednesday, but said he did not \u201cwant to waste time\u201d moving the matter to a vote of the full Senate. He previously suggested during a Fox News interview that \u200bhe could send the referral \u200bdirectly to the justice department, with a legal brief.
Peters warned that bypassing a full Senate vote might not be legally valid and said punishing Fauci for exercising his fifth amendment rights could deter future witnesses from giving congressional testimony.
\u201cFuture witnesses will argue that appearing before Congress exposes them to punishment regardless of whether they comply with a subpoena and invoke a constitutional protection,\u201d he said.
The fifth amendment is enshrined in the US constitution as a protective measure intended to save individuals from being forced to incriminate themselves when under investigation or asked to provide testimony.
The evening before the vote, it emerged that the US Department of Health and Human Services had provided a copy of Fauci\u2019s phone<\/a> to a Senate subcommittee. \u201cHopefully, this device will address many of the questions he refused to answer at last week\u2019s hearing,\u201d Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, the subcommittee\u2019s Republican chair, wrote on social media.
Fauci, 85, who was pardoned by Joe Biden<\/a> at the end of his presidency, declined to answer questions after accusing Paul of harboring a goal of \u201cembarrassing and intimidating me\u201d and of putting him \u201cbehind bars\u201d because of his leading role in urging widespread restrictions, including masking and social distancing, to combat the pandemic.
The senator has long accused Fauci of deliberately downplaying the possibility that the virus originated from a research laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan, rather than jumping from an animal to humans in a wet market, as most scientists believe.
\u201cAlthough it pains me to do so, because of the respect I have for the legislative branch of government and my decades-long record of cooperating with Congress, under the advice of my attorneys I will invoke my right under the fifth amendment of the constitution to refrain from answering your questions,\u201d Fauci said during the hearing.
Thereafter, he warded off all subsequent questions with identical answers that invoked the fifth amendment, enraging his Republican critics.
\u201cOn the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the fifth amendment of the constitution,\u201d he said, in an undeviating answer to different questions.
Paul \u2013 who had subpoenaed Fauci to appear \u2013 warned him during the hearing that his stance would have \u201crepercussions\u201d.
Later, he told him: \u201cBecause you refuse to answer, citing a privilege that is unsupported because of your pardon, and after being denied to do so, this committee has scheduled a vote next week on a resolution certifying your contempt.\u201d
It is unclear whether a vote in favor of contempt will have legal force.
According to the constitution, the fifth amendment guarantees that no individual \u201cshall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law\u201d.
The US supreme court has confirmed in several decisions since 1955 that witnesses can invoke it in congressional investigations, according to the Library of Congress<\/a>.
\u201cAlthough the [Fifth] amendment\u2019s protection expressly refers to criminal cases[s], the Court has nevertheless found the privilege against self-incrimination to be available to a witness appearing before a congressional committee,\u201d the library\u2019s annotated interpretation of the constitution states<\/a>.
Paul has insisted Fauci is precluded from pleading the fifth, however, on the grounds that the pre-emptive pardon Biden granted him means he cannot be prosecuted for any of the matters senators were asking him about.
Paul argued that Fauci\u2019s refusal to answer could lead to criminal prosecution for contempt of Congress or obstructing a congressional proceeding.
Federal law makes it a crime for witnesses to \u201cwillfully\u201d refuse to answer questions when called to give congressional testimony. A separate law<\/a> makes it illegal to obstruct an investigation by a congressional committee.
Fauci\u2019s lawyers have argued that he is on unassailable legal grounds by pleading the amendment.
\u201cFor years, Senator Paul has proclaimed to anyone who would listen that Dr Fauci should be prosecuted and put in prison,\u201d Schertler, Fauci\u2019s legal counsel, said on Thursday. \u201cDr Fauci has committed no crime \u2013 and Senator Paul knows it.
\u201cToday\u2019s resolution is a continuation of Senator Paul\u2019s personal vendetta against Dr Fauci, who spent 50 years in public health and has saved countless lives. It is shameful and wrong that Senator Paul is abusing his power by trying to weaponize the justice department against an honorable public servant.\u201d
Robert Mackey contributed reporting<\/em><\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anthony Fauci\u2019s lawyer condemned the vote from the Republican-controlled committee as a \u2018crude political stunt\u2019US politics live \u2013 latest updatesA Republican-controlled US Senate committee voted to hold Dr Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress after the veteran public health official repeatedly pleaded the fifth amendment to parry a hostile inquisition into his stewardship of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":219725,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-219724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}