Republican Sen. Rand Paul is pushing the Justice Department a fourth time to investigate Anthony Fauci.
Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which the Kentucky senator chairs, voted Thursday to hold the nation’s former COVID-19 adviser in contempt of Congress.
Paul said he would refer the resolution to the Department of Justice rather than sending it to the full Senate, where Democrats would likely block it.
It’s unclear whether the Justice Department will take action. While Fauci remains a punching bag for Republicans furious over pandemic restrictions, the agency previously declined to investigate him under both presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
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In response to a question about the latest resolution, DOJ spokeswoman Kiersten Pels told NOTUS that “the department seriously reviews all congressional referrals.”
It was a testy hearing between Republicans and Democrats Thursday morning. Sen. Gary Peters, the top Democrat on the committee, attempted to stop Paul from moving forward with the vote, urging the committee to table the contempt resolution. Peters claimed Democrats on the committee were left in the dark during Paul’s investigation.
“Following a one-sided investigation and a rushed process that has repeatedly excluded the minority and other members of this committee, the chairman is now asking the committee to take a vote that could harm our ability to future conduct investigations and disregards constitutional protections,” Peters said.
“There has been an unprecedented access to records,” Paul later retorted. “They have all been uploaded to a website you were invited to join. You refused to join. You had utter disdain. You never even asked for the password.”
Ultimately, Peters’ efforts failed.
The 85-year-old infectious disease expert — who became the polarizing face of the government’s pandemic response under both Trump and Biden — repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment to refuse to answer questions at a fiery hearing last week over his COVID-19 advice to Americans.
Democrats and Republicans on the panel were sorely divided over whether Fauci could be held in contempt for his approach.
Witnesses subpoenaed by Congress can invoke the Fifth Amendment if they’re worried about self-incrimination. Fauci was pardoned by Biden on Jan. 19, 2025, protecting him from federal prosecution for things he did or said before then.
But the pardon doesn’t protect Fauci from state prosecution — something GOP attorneys general in Louisiana, Alabama and Florida have said they’re considering. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama), who is running for governor, said at last week’s hearing that Fauci should be “locked up” and suggested he should be put on trial.
Fauci suggested he is fearful of prosecution, saying at the hearing’s outset that he believed Paul has an “unhinged obsession” with jailing him.
Fauci has kept a low profile in recent years, but Paul’s release last week of diaries he kept during the pandemic resparked a furious public debate over the origins of the coronavirus.
Republicans and conservatives say Fauci lied to the public about the virus’ origins, although his diary entries show he believed early in the pandemic that it came from an animal. Scientists remain divided over whether the origin was natural or from a lab leak, although more side with the possibility that it passed from an animal to a human.
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