Senate Republicans voted to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress after he declined to answer lawmakers\u2019 questions during a fiery hearing last week.<\/p>\n
Fauci, who has been a target of the right since he served as a top health official during the Covid pandemic, repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment right during the hearing, explaining in his opening remarks that he believed Republicans would try to use his testimony to prosecute him.<\/p>\n
Now, Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee have pushed to do just that with the 8-5, party-line vote.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe 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,\u201d committee Chairman Rand Paul, R-Ky., said in his opening statement at the meeting. Paul was referring to a pardon that then-President Joe Biden gave to Fauci and several others just prior to leaving office, which Biden said was to protect them from potential politically motivated prosecutions.<\/p>\n
The committee can refer the contempt of Congress resolution directly to the Justice Department or request that Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., hold a full Senate vote. Paul said yesterday that the \u201cfirst thing we will do\u201d if the resolution was approved would be to refer the matter to the Justice Department.<\/p>\n
Paul said after the vote that the committee would hand-deliver the referral to the Justice Department.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will hand deliver it today to the attorney general, and we will hand deliver it today to the District of Columbia, to the U.S. attorney there,\u201d Paul told reporters.<\/p>\n
If Paul did ask the full Senate to vote on the resolution, it probably would not have enough support to clear the 60-vote threshold that would be needed for the measure to pass in the narrowly divided chamber.<\/p>\n
If Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, chooses to try to prosecute the case, her office would need to secure an indictment from a grand jury in the district, where she has a mixed track record.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Fauci\u2019s lawyer called the vote \u201ca crude political stunt intended to punish Dr. Fauci for exercising his constitutional rights.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cToday\u2019s resolution is a continuation of Senator Paul\u2019s personal vendetta against Dr. Fauci, who spent 50 years in public health and has saved countless lives,\u201d the lawyer, David Schertler, said. \u201cIt is shameful and wrong that Senator Paul is abusing his power by trying to weaponize the Justice Department against an honorable public servant.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., said in his opening remarks at the meeting that the committee vote would create a \u201cdamaging precedent\u201d that would cause future congressional witnesses to resist providing congressional testimony.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf this committee now seeks to punish a witness for asserting their constitutional protected Fifth Amendment rights, future witnesses will argue that appearing before Congress exposes them to punishment, regardless of whether they comply with the subpoena and invoke a constitutional protection,\u201d said Peters, the top Democrat on the committee.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey will point directly to this vote, this vote, as a justification for refusing to appear at all,\u201d Peters said.<\/p>\n
As the meeting progressed, Democrats called for votes to table the contempt resolution five times \u2014 a push that was rejected along party lines.<\/p>\n