Senate Committee Votes to Hold Fauci in Contempt Over Testimony

A US Senate committee voted along party lines to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt for utilizing his fifth amendment right to remain silent over 100 times during his testimony about how he handled the COVID-19 pandemic six years ago. The vote referred the contempt allegation to the Justice Department for further investigation.

The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee vote 8-7 to refer Facui to the Department of Justice for his refusal to answer questions over his conduct during the pandemic. When the nation’s former chief infectious disease official did answer questions, he was adamant that his recommendations were based off the best available silence at the time. But that wasn’t enough for long-time science skeptic, chairman Rand Paul (Kentucky, R).

Receive future updates from the Evergreen PI

Paul has spent the last six years advocating for Fauci to be incarcerated for his recommendation of lock downs, social-distancing guidelines, and masking in public in response to the pandemic. The junior senator from Kentucky’s attacks on the doctor were a large driver behind former president Joe Biden’s decision to preemptively pardon Fauci in order to protect him from vindictive prosecution.

According to the committee’s Republican chairman, that pardon – and the fact that Fauci complied with the committee’s summons – nullified his fifth amendment right to remain silent and that’s why the committee’s conservative majority moved forward with recommending contempt charges to U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, which is run by Jeanine Pirro. Paul is going to bypass the normal Senate requirements and submit these charges directly to the DOJ instead of waiting for a full vote of the upper chamber; a full vote of the Senate would require 60 votes to forward the contempt charge.

The Republicans control 53 seats in the upper chamber and there is almost zero chance that seven Democrats will cross the isle for this political stunt orchestrated by Paul. Especially since any charges brought by the US Attorney’s Office will significantly undermine the fifth amendment to the United States Constitution.

Republicans voting to hold Fauci in contempt for utilizing a constitutionally guaranteed right stands in stark contrast with the party’s complete silence on representative Jim Jordan’s (Ohio, R) refusal to comply with a subpoena from the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol back in 2022.