Dr. Anthony Fauci apparently really, really loves the Fifth Amendment. So much so that he invoked it over 100 times during a Senate hearing last week, which is honestly impressive if you think about it. That is some elite level question dodging, folks.
Senate Republicans on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee responded by voting along party lines to hold the former top health official in criminal contempt of Congress, as Trending Politics reported. Nothing says "bipartisan cooperation" quite like a straight party line vote on whether someone should face consequences for refusing to talk.
Committee Chairman Rand Paul of Kentucky, who has been engaged in what can only be described as a years long grudge match with Fauci going back to the pandemic era, had previously warned of "repercussions" if the doctor stayed silent. And give Paul credit, the man followed through faster than most of us respond to text messages.
Here is where things get legally spicy. Paul's resolution skips a full Senate vote entirely and instead ships the referral straight to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. It is basically the congressional equivalent of going over someone's head to talk to the manager. Paul also wants the DOJ to weigh in on a fascinating legal question: does that preemptive pardon Joe Biden handed Fauci before leaving office mean he cannot actually plead the Fifth? Because if you have already been pardoned, what exactly are you incriminating yourself about? Paul told Fox News Digital it makes for "a good legal discussion," which is lawyer speak for "we think we caught him in a contradiction."
Meanwhile, investigators are not just relying on testimony. The Department of Health and Human Services, now under the leadership of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (yes, that timeline is real), turned over Fauci's pandemic era cellphone to Senate investigators. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin is chairing the subcommittee looking into that device. They also already have more than 1,000 pages from Fauci's personal diary, which honestly sounds like the most stressful beach read imaginable.
The House is piling on too. Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, also from Kentucky (the Bluegrass State is really leading the charge here), says his panel is far from finished with Fauci. Comer raised the same pardon paradox, arguing that if Biden's blanket pardon signed by autopen is legitimate, then Fauci has zero legal basis to refuse answering questions. He also noted that based on the diary revelations, they will be asking whether Fauci stands by previous testimony he gave to the committee.
So to recap: over 100 Fifth Amendment invocations, a criminal contempt referral, a confiscated cellphone, a thousand page diary, and a pardon that might actually backfire. Someone get this man a lawyer. Actually, he already has one, and that attorney got kicked out of last week's hearing for yelling. So maybe get him a quieter one.
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