{"id":1351,"date":"2026-08-06T20:06:42","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T20:06:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=1351"},"modified":"2026-08-06T20:06:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T20:06:42","slug":"senate-committee-finds-fauci-in-contempt-of-congress-for-using-fifth-amendment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=1351","title":{"rendered":"Senate Committee Finds Fauci in Contempt of Congress for Using Fifth Amendment"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On Thursday, the Senate Homeland Security Committee passed a resolution, along partisan lines, to hold Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress after he refused to testify at a hearing last week about the origins of the COVID-19 virus, citing his Fifth Amendment protections.<\/p>\n

Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was a key figure during the coronavirus pandemic, often appearing next to President Donald Trump in daily press briefings. But as Fauci\u2019s findings began to contradict Trump\u2019s baseless claims about the virus, Trump began to distance himself from him, prompting right-wing voices to attack Fauci\u2019s credibility by pushing unfounded conspiracy theories about him.<\/p>\n

Fauci appeared last week before the committee but invoked his Fifth Amendment right to protect himself from self-incrimination, believing that Republicans on the committee were intending to trick him into accidentally lying under oath. Thursday\u2019s vote featured all eight Republicans on the committee voting to find Fauci in contempt, with all five Democrats voting against the measure. <\/p>\n

The committee, chaired by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), will forward a recommendation to the Department of Justice (DOJ) to consider charging Fauci with criminal contempt of Congress charges. Typically, a full Senate vote would need to be adopted for the resolution to have the full force of a \u201ccontempt of Congress\u201d recommendation, but the DOJ could view the committee\u2019s vote as sufficient to pursue charges.<\/p>\n

Paul claims that Fauci\u2019s presidential pardon, granted during the last days of the Biden administration, precluded him from being able to claim Fifth Amendment protections, characterizing the contempt vote as being \u201con whether a witness who has received the benefit of a federal pardon can be ordered by this committee to answer questions and then defy that order without consequence.\u201d However, that view is debatable, as former President Joe Biden\u2019s pardon protects Fauci from charges relating to \u201cany offenses against the United States which he may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014, through the date of this pardon,\u201d which was January 19, 2025. <\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s partisan committee vote is a crude political stunt intended to punish Dr. Fauci for exercising his constitutional rights,\u201d said David Scherler, an attorney representing Fauci.<\/p>\n

Read more Juliana Leon Died in a Climate-Linked Heat Wave. Her Daughter Is Suing Big Oil.<\/a><\/p>\n

Sen. Gary Peters (D-Michigan), a member of the Homeland Security Committee, also panned the vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cCriminal contempt is punitive. It does not compel a witness to answer questions or produce the documents we\u2019d all like to see,\u201d Peters pointed out. \u201cWhat it will do is create a damaging precedent that future witnesses will use to resist legitimate congressional oversight, and weaken this committee\u2019s ability to compel testimony.\u201d<\/p>\n

For many years, Paul and other Republican lawmakers have tried to claim that COVID-19 originated from a lab in China \u2014 a claim that Fauci and other leading experts have said is unfounded. A World Health Organization report in 2025 shares the same view, noting that the \u201cweight of available evidence\u201d supports the position that the pathogen originated from animals, not a lab. <\/p>\n

As part of supposed evidence supporting his points, Paul released portions of Fauci\u2019s private diary to the public last month. The entries from Fauci do not indicate that he believed the lab theory while touting other ideas \u2014 rather, it only shows that he gave it basic scientific consideration.<\/p>\n

If the DOJ decides to pursue contempt charges against Fauci, he could face up to a year in prison if he\u2019s convicted. He could also be forced to pay a fine of up to $100,000. <\/p>\n

Read more You Can\u2019t Drink Data: Native Communities Are Resisting the AI Death Cycle<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The vote \u201cis a crude political stunt\u201d to punish Fauci \u201cfor exercising his constitutional rights,\u201d his lawyer said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nSenate Committee Finds Fauci in Contempt of Congress for Using Fifth Amendment - Smart Moving Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=1351\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Senate Committee Finds Fauci in Contempt of Congress for Using Fifth Amendment - Smart Moving Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The vote \u201cis a crude political stunt\u201d to punish Fauci \u201cfor exercising his constitutional rights,\u201d his lawyer said.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=1351\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Smart Moving Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-06T20:06:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=1351#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=1351\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ec0d70042821fd684a174c8d0e8becfa\"},\"headline\":\"Senate Committee Finds Fauci in Contempt of Congress for Using Fifth Amendment\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-06T20:06:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=1351\"},\"wordCount\":669,\"commentCount\":0,\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=1351#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=1351\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=1351\",\"name\":\"Senate Committee Finds Fauci in Contempt of Congress for Using Fifth Amendment - 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