U.S. Senate Committee Approves Contempt Charge Against Fauci, Former NIAID Director, for Refusing to Testify

A standing committee of the U.S. Senate on the 6th, local time, approved a contempt-of-Congress measure against Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), for refusing to testify at a hearing investigating the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Financial News reported.
The party-line vote allows the committee to refer the case to the DOJ for possible criminal prosecution. It remains unclear, however, whether the DOJ will actually bring charges.
At last week's hearing, Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment, which protects the right to remain silent, more than 100 times. He claimed that Senator Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, was trying to put him in jail. Immediately after the vote, Fauci's lawyer strongly objected, calling it "a crude political show aimed at punishing Dr. Fauci for exercising his constitutional rights."
Paul has argued for years that Fauci concealed the origins of the pandemic and supported a laboratory in Wuhan, China. Many scientists, by contrast, say the main cause was contact with infected animals.
Former President Joe Biden granted Fauci a pardon on the final day of his term in 2025 for actions taken between 2014 and 2025. However, contempt of Congress or alleged violations of state law committed after the pardon are not covered.
Paul said, "Fauci refused to answer. This vote is about whether a witness who received a presidential pardon can ignore Congress's orders."
In response, Democratic Senator Gary Peters countered, "This is a rushed investigation and a political attack that Paul has waged for years to punish Dr. Fauci."
Fauci's lawyer said, "Dr. Fauci is innocent. His invocation of the Fifth Amendment was fully lawful, and the Republican political contempt resolution should be dismissed."
Paul, the committee chairman, said he would move forward with referral to the DOJ without a full Senate vote, citing time constraints. In general, contempt measures must win at least 60 votes in the Senate. Republicans currently hold 53 seats.
Actual punishment for contempt of Congress is extremely rare in the United States. In 2024, Steve Bannon, a former White House strategist and close ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, and Peter Navarro, a former White House economic adviser, were sentenced to prison for contempt of Congress, marking the first guilty verdicts since the 1980s.

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