The Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee, led by GOP senator Rand Paul, voted Thursday morning to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions at last week’s hearing. Many legal experts have argued that Fauci is in the clear. They’re wrong.
A subpoenaed witness commits contempt of Congress if he refuses to answer any pertinent question posed to him by a committee. That’s a criminal offense. If Congress refers a contempt finding to the Justice Department and a prosecution ensues, a conviction is punishable by up to 12 months in prison. Former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon served four months for contempt in 2022.
But a witness can avoid a conviction if he’s found to have validly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. So the critical legal question is whether Fauci validly pleaded the Fifth. The answer seems to be no.
Fauci supposedly pleaded the Fifth because he and his lawyers believed the hearing was a “perjury trap”—an attempt by Senator Paul and other Republicans to coax Fauci into lying under oath about his record as the top federal virologist during the Covid pandemic. Perjury is a live risk for Fauci because his famous pardon, issued in January 2025 by President Joe Biden, does not absolve him of any crimes committed after that date.
