Overview
- The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs voted 8–7 on Thursday to declare Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt for refusing to answer questions at a recent hearing.
- Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right more than 100 times during a public hearing last week and declined to respond to lawmakers probing his pandemic-era decisions and the virus’s origins.
- Committee chairman Rand Paul said he will forward the committee’s contempt recommendation straight to the Department of Justice without seeking a full Senate vote, a procedural choice that needs the vice president’s sign-off to bypass the floor.
- A Senate subcommittee reported it has obtained a copy of Fauci’s official iPhone and portions of his personal notes, records the panel says could supply answers the witness declined to give in testimony.
- Legal analysts say the contempt referral faces long litigation because of President Biden’s preventive pardon for Fauci, questions about whether a pardon strips Fifth Amendment protections, and the prospect of parallel state probes.