A US Senate committee on Thursday voted to hold former top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress and refer the matter to the Justice Department after he repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during a hearing on the Covid-19 pandemic, the Associated Press reported.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved the contempt resolution after Fauci declined to answer questions at last week's hearing, invoking the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times.
The referral will now be sent to the US Attorney's Office in Washington, which will decide whether to investigate or pursue prosecution.
Committee chairman Sen. Rand Paul argued that Fauci's Fifth Amendment protection no longer applied because former President Joe Biden had granted him a sweeping pardon earlier this year.
"Dr. Fauci faced no risk of federal prosecution. All he had to do was tell the truth," Paul said.
Paul maintained that the vote was not about Fauci's handling of the pandemic but whether a witness who has received a presidential pardon can refuse to answer questions after being ordered to do so by Congress.
Fauci said he invoked the Fifth Amendment because he feared that any new statements could expose him to criminal charges not covered by Biden's pardon.
He accused Paul of trying to elicit statements that could later be used against him.
Democratic lawmakers backed Fauci's decision, arguing that the pardon did not protect him against potential prosecution arising from future testimony and that he had a legitimate constitutional right to remain silent.
“The goal was to wait for Dr. Fauci make any kind of misstatement and then have a weaponized Department of Justice to file criminal charges for that new statement that would nor have been covered by the pardon, leaving Dr. Fauci little choice but to invoke his constitutional right to not walk directly into a trap,” said Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H.
The Justice Department will now decide whether to investigate or prosecute Fauci for contempt of Congress.
Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan said: "If this committee now seeks to punish a witness for asserting their constitutionally protected Fifth Amendment rights, future witnesses will argue that appearing before Congress exposes them to punishment regardless of whether they comply with a subpoena and invoke a constitutional protection," he said.
