A U.S. Senate committee has voted to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress, according to Eyewitness News ABC7NY. The vote by the Senate's Homeland Security Committee, which fell along party lines, followed Fauci's repeated refusal to answer questions before the panel last week.
The former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases had repeatedly asserted his Fifth Amendment right not to answer questions during that hearing. The session largely centered on the origins of COVID-19 and on his handling of the United States' national response to the virus.
Senator Rand Paul has claimed that Fauci lied about how COVID-19 started. Fauci has forcefully denied that accusation, saying that he has always kept an open mind about the origins of the virus, according to the station's report on the vote.
In the final hours of President Biden's time in office, Fauci received a preemptive pardon. That pardon, however, does not protect him from any new charges that could be brought under the Trump administration, the report noted.
Fauci has argued that the only conclusion he can reach is that the sole reason he was called before the committee was to get him to say something that could vindicate what he described as Paul's repeated public pledges that he would end up, in his words, behind bars.
Committee Democrats defended Fauci and raised concerns about the precedent that could be set if someone is punished for invoking the Fifth Amendment. They argued the chairman was asking for a vote that could harm the ability to conduct future investigations, without a reliable legal basis for it.
Supporters of the move argued that Fauci faced no risk of federal prosecution simply for declining to answer, and that all he had to do was tell the truth. The committee's contempt vote is one step in a longer process, with the dispute over his testimony still unresolved.