WASHINGTON — The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted Thursday to advance a contempt of Congress citation against Dr. Anthony Fauci, sending the referral to the Justice Department, which could prosecute him.

The vote followed Fauci's appearance before the committee on July 29, 2026, when he invoked the Fifth Amendment 111 times in response to questions about the government's COVID-19 response.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. the committee chairman, said Fauci's assertion of Fifth Amendment privilege was unjustified. Paul cited President Joe Biden's sweeping pardon of Fauci for actions taken from 2014 to early 2025, arguing it meant Fauci could not have incriminated himself by answering.

"All he had to do was tell the truth more than 100 times. Though he refused," Paul said, ruling Fauci's invocation of the privilege invalid.

Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich. the committee's ranking member, criticized the investigation as partisan. Peters said the committee was being asked to take a vote that could damage its ability to conduct future investigations while disregarding constitutional protections.

Peters argued the committee lacked a sound legal basis for holding Fauci in contempt and maintained that Fauci had reason to invoke his constitutional rights despite the presidential pardon.

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla. backed the contempt vote, saying on X that Fauci "MUST be held accountable" for refusing to answer Congress.

Scott added that Fauci "misled Congress and the American people, cost countless lives and livelihoods, and was obsessed with protecting his own popularity rather than telling the truth."

During his testimony, Fauci repeatedly said, "On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution." He also accused Paul of a vendetta, saying the sole reason for his appearance was to vindicate Paul's public pledges to see him "behind bars."

Ahead of the testimony, the committee released excerpts of Fauci's diary, stored on a government computer, detailing the COVID-19 pandemic response. In one entry, Fauci said a wet market in Wuhan, China, "was not the source, but the amplifier" of the virus.

In his opening statement, Fauci said the diary release was "aimed at embarrassing and intimidating me." He has consistently denied that the United States funded gain-of-function research at China's Wuhan Institute of Virology and insisted he never misled Congress on the virus's origin.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. pointed to ongoing investigations by three state attorneys general in Florida, Louisiana and Alabama, arguing those state-level inquiries gave Fauci a legitimate reason to invoke Fifth Amendment rights even with the federal pardon in place.

The contempt citation draws parallels to earlier cases involving allies of President Donald Trump. Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro were convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Both men served four months in federal prison.