A Senate committee led by Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky investigating the origins of COVID-19 voted Thursday to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer any questions at a contentious hearing last week.
Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who helped lead the country’s pandemic response, invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 100 times in his appearance before the panel, accusing Paul in an opening statement of having an “unhinged obsession” with him.
Paul warned Fauci that he could be held in contempt for obstructing a congressional investigation, arguing that because Fauci had received a pardon from former President Joe Biden, the Fifth Amendment did not apply to him.
“I ruled that the Fifth Amendment did not apply because of the pardon, and that Fauci had waived any remaining privilege by giving opening testimony,” Paul said in a statement ahead of Thursday’s committee meeting. “I ordered him to answer and warned him about contempt, yet he still refused. That is obstruction of a congressional investigation.”
The vote on the resolution to hold Fauci in contempt was 8-7, with all seven Democrats on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voting against it.
Paul had said that he would send the contempt referral directly to the Justice Department rather than the full Senate, where it would require 60 votes and some Democratic support to pass. It would then be up to the DOJ to decide whether to prosecute Fauci for failing to comply with a congressional subpoena, a misdemeanor under federal law.
On the eve of the contempt vote, Sen. Ron Johnson, a Republican from Wisconsin who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, revealed that he had “obtained a copy” of Fauci’s government-issued iPhone from the Department of Health and Human Services. It’s unclear what the device contains.
Ahead of last week’s hearing, Paul released more than 1,100 pages of Fauci’s COVID-era diary, which was also turned over to the panel by HSS.
What happened at the hearing?
Dr. Anthony Fauci is sworn in before a hearing on Capitol Hill on July 29.
(Alex Wroblewski via Getty Images)In a prepared opening statement, Fauci said he had testified before or briefed Congress over 200 times in his career and believes in “the value of legitimate congressional oversight.”
“However, given Senator Paul’s obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution, his repeated slanderous comments about me, and recently his publicly releasing my unredacted personal diary aimed at embarrassing and intimidating me, the only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something, anything, that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up in his words ‘behind bars,'” Fauci said. “Any reasonable person who has followed his unhinged obsession with me would readily come to the same conclusion.”
Fauci added: “Therefore, although 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.”
Paul pressed on, but Fauci would not budge, refusing to answer his questions — or anyone else’s — during the three-hour hearing.
“On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer, based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution,” Fauci said in response to each question.
After Paul warned Fauci that there would be “repercussions” for refusing to testify, David Schertler, one of Fauci’s attorneys, tried to speak, but Paul cut him off.
“Sit quietly and don’t say another word,” Paul told Schertler before ordering security to remove him from the hearing room. In a statement, Schertler said that it was “outrageous” for Paul to have him removed.
“It proves the baseless and vindictive nature of this proceeding and Rand Paul’s personal vendetta against Dr. Fauci,” he said.
What’s behind the Paul-Fauci feud?
Sen. Rand Paul is pictured in front of a poster of Dr. Anthony Fauci while Fauci appears at a hearing on Capitol Hill on July 29.
(The Washington Post via Getty Images)For years, Paul has accused Fauci of deceiving Americans about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fauci has said SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, most likely spread from animals to humans, which is largely the consensus of the scientific community.
Paul has promoted the idea that the virus originated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a Chinese government lab, and has alleged that Fauci tried to cover up evidence supporting the “lab leak” theory.
During one particularly contentious hearing in 2021, Paul accused Fauci of lying to Congress about U.S. government funding of the Wuhan lab.
“I have not lied before the Congress,” Fauci said. “Senator Paul, you do not know what you are talking about, quite frankly. And I want to say that officially.”
“You’re dancing around this because you’re trying to obscure responsibility for 4 million people dying around them from a pandemic,” Paul said.
Fauci, 85, retired in 2022 after more than 38 years as NIAID director.
During a House hearing in 2024, Fauci testified that he and his family continued to receive death threats amid “disinformation” spread by Paul and others, requiring him to have round-the-clock security.
“Every time someone gets up and says I’m responsible for the death of people throughout the world, the threats go up,” Fauci said.
Why was Fauci pardoned — and what does that have to do with this?
Dr. Anthony Fauci appears before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on July 29.
(Allison Robbert/AP)In 2025, shortly before leaving office, Biden awarded Fauci a blanket pardon — covering the 11-year period before it was issued — that was meant to shield him from “baseless and politically motivated investigations.”
Paul argued that the Fifth Amendment, which ensures no person can be compelled to give self-incriminating testimony, did not apply to Fauci because the pardon gives him immunity from federal prosecution.
But some legal experts have argued that Fauci still faces a threat of state or local prosecution, or from actions or statements in the 18 months since the pardon was issued, and therefore has the right to invoke the Fifth Amendment.
“We are completely confident that Dr. Fauci has a valid Fifth Amendment privilege here and is on solid legal ground in asserting it,” Schertler said in a statement following last week’s hearing. “Rand Paul may be a doctor, but he is not a lawyer.”
