US Senate panel votes to hold former official Fauci in contempt of Congress

What the report says

A United States Senate committee voted on Thursday to hold former federal health official Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress, according to Al Jazeera. The action followed a hearing last week in which Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, declined to answer questions from Republican lawmakers and instead invoked his Fifth Amendment rights.

Al Jazeera reported that the dispute unfolded before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, where Republicans have pressed Fauci over his role in the US response to COVID-19 and long-running arguments about the pandemic’s origins. The article said committee chairman Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and other Republicans have accused Fauci of misleading the public, while Fauci has argued that the hearing was designed to trap him. Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal said a court would likely reject any contempt case because Fauci could reasonably fear self-incrimination.

If the committee follows through, the matter could be referred to the Department of Justice for possible criminal prosecution. Al Jazeera noted that Fauci had previously been pardoned by former President Joe Biden, and that the controversy comes as Republicans continue to criticize pandemic-era school and business closures, vaccine policy and the unresolved question of whether the virus emerged naturally or from a laboratory leak. The vote arrives with US midterm elections approaching in November.