Senate committee votes on Fauci contempt referral after he invoked Fifth Amendment more than 100 times
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee held a vote Thursday on whether to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress and refer him to the Justice Department for potential prosecution. Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 100 times at a committee hearing the previous week, declining to answer questions about his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Committee Chairman Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky announced the contempt vote after warning Fauci there would be "repercussions" for his refusal to testify.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee scheduled Thursday's contempt vote after Fauci appeared before the panel on July 29, 2026, and declined to answer lawmakers' questions, invoking his Fifth Amendment right more than 100 times. Fauci did deliver an opening statement, in which he accused Paul of harboring an "unhinged obsession" with prosecuting him and said the hearing was designed to induce a false statement under oath.
Central to the legal dispute is a preemptive pardon issued by former President Joe Biden in the final hours of his presidency, covering Fauci's conduct from 2014 through January 2025. Paul has argued the pardon eliminated any basis for invoking the Fifth Amendment, since it removed the threat of prosecution for pandemic-era actions. Fauci and his legal team countered that the pardon does not shield him from charges arising from testimony given during current congressional proceedings, and that Republicans had openly stated their intent to pursue perjury charges. As the Associated Press noted, the question of how far a presidential pardon extends in shielding a witness from congressional contempt could have implications beyond this case, including for future clemency recipients.
Ahead of the contempt vote, Sen. Ron Johnson's Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations received a copy of Fauci's government iPhone from the Department of Health and Human Services, CNN reported. Johnson wrote on social media that he hoped the device would "address many of the questions he refused to answer." Separately, Paul released more than 1,100 pages of Fauci's government-stored personal diary entries, covering 2019 to 2022, which the committee used as a basis for its questioning.