Senate panel to vote on Fauci contempt resolution after tense hearing

Healthcare Senate panel to vote on Fauci contempt resolution after tense hearing Comments: by Joseph Choi - 08/04/26 1:43 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Joseph Choi - 08/04/26 1:43 PM ET Comments: Link copied

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The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) will vote Thursday on a resolution to hold former top health official Anthony Fauci in contempt following his hearing last week in which he invoked his Fifth Amendment right more than 100 times and refused to answer any questions.

The HSGAC will vote Thursday morning on the resolution regarding the “refusal of Dr. Anthony S. Fauci to answer questions pertinent to the subject under inquiry before the Committee as required by Committee subpoena.”

The resolution calls for Vice President JD Vance, who also serves as president of the Senate, to send the committee’s report of contempt to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.

In his appearance before the committee last week, Fauci made it clear at the start that he planned to answer no questions, stating his belief that committee Chair Rand Paul (R-Ky.) was using the proceedings as a way of somehow getting him “behind bars.”

Republican members of the committee both mocked and tested Fauci’s Fifth Amendment defense, with several insisting that he had no such protections due to former President Biden granting him a sweeping pardon. During the hearing, the argument over Fauci’s decision got to the point where one his attorneys, David Schertler, was removed from the room on Paul’s orders.

Paul acknowledged after the hearing that whether Fauci had Fifth Amendment protections was not clear, saying, “Maybe the Fifth Amendment doesn’t attach when you have a pardon in place.”

Prior Supreme Court rulings have maintained that witnesses need a degree of certainty on their immunity to overcome their constitutional protection.

The Hill has reached out to Fauci’s attorneys for comment on the planned vote.

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