Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) will refer Dr. Anthony Fauci to the Department of Justice for contempt of Congress after a committee vote slated for Thursday morning.
The move by Paul, chairman of the Senate’s Homeland Security Committee, effectively sidesteps a vote before the entire chamber on whether Fauci inappropriately invoked his constitutional right against self-incrimination during a hearing on his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
A federal law lays out the process for the president of the Senate to certify the contempt resolution, but Paul argued that step does not need to happen for him to ask the Justice Department to investigate Fauci for possible prosecution.
“It’s a referral. It’s a recommendation,” Paul said on Tuesday, telling the Washington Examiner he would include a legal brief in that referral. “So, we’ll send it directly from the committee, but then we’ll also talk to leadership and at some point in time see if they want to vote on it.”
Fauci, who helped lead the federal response to the pandemic as a top infectious disease specialist, received a blanket pardon in the final hours of Joe Biden’s presidency, leading Republicans to argue that he had a responsibility to cooperate with Paul’s committee in last week’s testimony.
Under that pardon, Fauci would be immune from federal prosecution but could still face state or local charges. Any allegations of false testimony made after the date of the pardon would also not be covered.
Fauci pleaded the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times last week and only spoke to deliver his opening statement, accusing Paul of having an “obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution.”
Paul, a libertarian and longtime skeptic of the federal government’s response to the pandemic, has accused Fauci of covering up the origin of COVID-19 and referred him to the Justice Department multiple times under the Biden administration.
The hearing followed Paul’s release of Fauci’s diary entries, which were stored on a government server.
One GOP member of the panel, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), appeared to support Fauci’s Fifth Amendment right during the hearing, although he told the Washington Examiner on Tuesday that he would support the contempt resolution and viewed the questioning as separate from any state charges he might face.
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The attorneys general of several GOP-led states have vowed to investigate Fauci after his Senate hearing.
“It’s two different issues here,” Lankford said. “I believe he has a Fifth Amendment right based on his protection for state crimes that are sitting out there, obviously, or any future crimes — that’s very different.”