GOP effort to hold Anthony Fauci in contempt stalls

The Republican-led effort to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress has reportedly stalled amid concern from the White House that it’s not legally sound.

On August 6, GOP lawmakers in the Senate voted to refer Fauci to the Justice Department for contempt, after the health expert repeatedly declined to answer their questions.

Since then, The Wall Street Journal reports, there’s been little progress on the effort, with the Trump administration reportedly unsure if it will survive a court challenge because it avoided the usual full floor vote for a contempt allegation.

Senator Rand Paul, a vocal Fauci critic, has sought to have Vice President JD Vance certify the contempt referral instead, bypassing the 60-vote hurdle the referral would face from a full vote, which would be unlikely to succeed.

As of early Tuesday, Vance’s office hadn’t gotten documents to certify, the Journal reported. The Justice Department reportedly also has yet to get a formal referral.

Paul’s office sent the report to Vance later Tuesday, sources told the paper.

The Independent has contacted Paul, Vance, the White House and the DOJ for comment.

President Trump has voiced support for prosecuting Fauci.

"When you see that happen, you sort ‌of say maybe he should (be ​prosecuted),” he said after the contempt vote. “What he did is far ‌more serious than ⁠a lot of crimes, frankly."

During his testimony, Fauci repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent.

Before the hearing, the health expert, who left the federal government in 2022 after decades steering disease policy, accused Paul of having an “obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution."

Fauci told reporters the Republican was seeking “to get me to say something, anything, that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, quote, behind bars, unquote.”

Shortly before leaving office, President Joe Biden preemptively pardoned Fauci, given the intense Republican criticism of the official, whom GOP lawmakers accuse of obscuring the true origins of Covid, which Fauci denies.

The contempt effort is seen by legal scholars as a bellwether case.

“This is an important case because I think a lot of people anticipate that President Trump is going to issue similar pardons to many people in his administration who will end up being called before Congress, and the precedent here is important,” Mark Osler, a St. Thomas University law professor, recently told The Associated Press.

Republicans argue the pardon eliminates the core of Fauci’s Fifth Amendment defense, given that the Constitution only bars people from being compelled to testify against themselves in criminal cases.