A Senate committee on Thursday voted 8-5 to hold Anthony Fauci, once the chief of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Joe Biden’s key COVID-19 pandemic adviser, in contempt of Congress.
An immediate referral to the Department of Justice for a formal investigation and possible criminal charges was expected.
It was a vote in the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs committee that put Fauci, whose contempt for the American public already was in evidence through the release of a diary he kept on government computers, that put him in the position of facing possible legal consequences.
He repeatedly praised himself in that diary, bragging he was the most talked about American, even while commenting on the source of COVID, the treatment, precautions and more, all the while contradicting those statements to the public in demanding masking, social distancing, the injecting of dangerous shots on Americans. He insisted schools be closed, damaging millions of children, then denied doing that.
Fauci had been handed a blanket pardon by Biden before the Democrat left office, yet still refused to answer Senate committee questions 111 times during last week’s hearing.
The Washington Examiner explained, “Republicans argue Fauci’s acceptance of the pardon meant that he had a responsibility to answer the committee’s questions during the high-profile hearing last week. … He pleaded his Fifth Amendment right to silence more than 100 times during the hearing and only spoke to deliver his opening statement, during which he accused Paul of having an ‘obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution.’”
It was Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who proposed the resolution targeting Fauci.
“That is what we are voting on today, not his opinions, not his policies, not anything he said from a podium six years ago. We are voting on whether a witness who has received the benefit of a sweeping federal pardon can be ordered by this committee to answer questions and then defy that order without consequence,” Paul said.
🚨 BREAKING: Rand Paul’s Senate Homeland Security Committee has voted to hold Dr. Fauci in CONTEMPT OF CONGRESS following his improper invocation of the fifth amendment
Paul is BYPASSING Senate Democrats, and bringing this straight to the DOJ.
This is a SERIOUS crime, which can… pic.twitter.com/WVINctbCUu
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) August 6, 2026
HAPPENING NOW: Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul moves to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress after he repeatedly refused to answer questions about his COVID-19 decision making under subpoena.
“All he had to do was tell the truth more than 100… pic.twitter.com/tiroFvcaN7
— Fox News (@FoxNews) August 6, 2026
🚨NOW: FAUCI HELD IN CONTEMPT!!!
He will now be referred to the DOJ. 🔥 🔥 pic.twitter.com/5hiqCOmGON
— Juanita Broaddrick (@atensnut) August 6, 2026
Democrats made five motions that would have postponed the vote but all of their schemes were rejected.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., charged that Fauci was running a “predetermined, premeditated design to evade this committee’s questions on any subject.”
Officials in Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida already have begun their own investigations, and have been demanding Fauci’s testimony. Biden’s pardon would not protect him from any state counts.
