WASHINGTON (AP) – A Senate committee voted Thursday to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress and refer him to the Justice Department for potential prosecution over his refusal to answer questions at a hearing last week on his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 100 times at the hearing.
Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, the committee chairman, has said that constitutional protection did not apply since Fauci last year received a pardon from Democratic President Joe Biden and thus did not have to worry about the threat of prosecution. Fauci and Democrats who opposed the contempt resolution say he had a well-founded fear of self-incrimination given a public desire by Republicans to seek his prosecution.
Pirro’s office is the next stop for Fauci’s contempt charge
The Senate has typically considered contempt charges even when they originate with a committee. But Paul is sending the matter directly to the Justice Department, bypassing the full Senate in a move Democrats decried as illegitimate.
That means the referral will land in the office of Washington’s U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro.
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