Dr. Anthony Fauci declines request to appear before a second Senate panel after GOP contempt vote
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Dr. Anthony Fauci has declined a request to voluntarily appear before a second Senate panel after majority Republicans on the Homeland Security Committee voted along party lines last week to hold the longtime infectious disease expert in contempt.
In a pointed letter to Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, a lawyer for the former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director said compelling Fauci to appear before a Senate subcommittee after a contentious July 29 hearing would “impermissibly harass or degrade Dr. Fauci for political purposes.”
During the July hearing on his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination over 100 times, prompting the Aug. 6 contempt vote and a referral to the Justice Department for potential investigation into whether he properly exercised his constitutional rights.
Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, the committee chairman who pushed for the contempt finding, said the protection did not apply because former President Joe Biden had preemptively pardoned Fauci, meaning he did not need to fear prosecution. Paul has long accused Fauci of misleading the public during the pandemic and repeatedly called for him to be prosecuted and imprisoned.
Johnson, chairman of the subcommittee on investigations, sought a parallel congressional investigation into Fauci’s role in the COVID-19 response, including the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines.
