U.S. Senate Committee Holds Fauci in Contempt Over COVID‑19 Hearing
A U.S. Senate committee voted along party lines to hold former National Institutes of Health director Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress after he refused to answer questions about his management of the COVID‑19 pandemic.
The vote, which fell largely along partisan lines, means the committee will refer the case to the Justice Department for possible prosecution of a failure to comply with a congressional subpoena. Whether the department will act remains uncertain.
During his testimony last week, Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times, arguing that Kentucky Senator Rand Paul was “trying to put him behind bars”. Paul has long accused Fauci of hiding the virus’s origins and of funding research in Wuhan, China.
Most scientists, however, believe that the outbreak is more likely to have originated from an infected animal that entered the human population. Fauci’s defense remains that he has no wrongdoing.
President Joe Biden granted Fauci a pre‑emptive pardon on his last day in office in 2025, which protects him from federal prosecution for actions up to 2025 but does not cover post‑2025 conduct such as contempt of Congress.
Fauci could also face state or local charges that are not addressed by the pardon. He has repeatedly denied the allegations and dismissed Senator Paul’s scrutiny as an “obvious obsession.”
“The chair directed Anthony Fauci to answer. He refused,” Republican Rand Paul said ahead of the vote. “That is what we are voting on today — not his opinions, not his policies, not anything he said from the podium six years ago.”
The hearing ends the debate on whether a witness who has received a federal pardon can be forced to comply with congressional demands and then be sanctioned for defiance.
