A US Senate committee will vote next week on whether to hold former top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress after he refused to answer questions at a hearing this week.
Fauci, 85, who led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for nearly four decades and played a central role in the US Covid-19 response, appeared under subpoena before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on July 29. He repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
Committee chairman Senator Rand Paul, a Republican, has accused Fauci of manipulating intelligence on the pandemic’s origins and lying to Congress over National Institutes of Health funding linked to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. Fauci denies the allegations.
During the three-hour session, Fauci cited what he called Paul’s “unhinged obsession” with him. “Given Senator Paul’s obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution, his repeated slanderous comments about me … the only conclusion that I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something – anything – that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, ‘behind bars’,” Fauci told the panel.
Republicans argued that a full presidential pardon granted to Fauci by former President Joe Biden in January 2025 prevents him from invoking the Fifth Amendment. If the committee and then the full Senate approve a contempt resolution, Fauci could face a criminal fine and up to a year in prison, or a civil lawsuit.
More than 150 scientists and public health experts signed an open letter the day before the hearing urging Congress to end what they called the “ongoing vilification and harassment” of American scientists, asserting that “no credible evidence” supports the accusations against Fauci.
The committee’s top Democrat, Senator Gary Peters, warned that such actions risk deterring experts from public service and noted recent cuts to the public health workforce under the current administration.
