Republican U.S. senators’ successful vote to hold Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress has reignited political debates about the fairness of holding some political figures accountable but neglecting to condemn others.
Senate Homeland Security Chairman Rand Paul, R-Ky., sent Fauci’s contempt resolution Thursday directly to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., for his refusal to answer a single question from committee lawmakers last week.
“When Anthony Fauci came before the [committee] 8 days ago, he invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times, despite having a pardon spanning more than a decade,” Paul posted on social media Thursday. “Today, we voted to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with our subpoena.”
Democrats, however, who unanimously opposed the contempt resolution, are calling it an act of “political theater.”
“This is gamesmanship, and it represents everything wrong with Congress, which under this majority, is clearly not focused on the priorities of the American people,” Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., told the committee.
“There is a real need for a serious bipartisan examination into what went well, and what went wrong during our country’s response to the pandemic. But that’s not what we saw last week in this committee,” Hassan added.
“The goal [of Republicans] was to wait for Dr. Fauci to make any kind of misstatement, and then have a weaponized Department of Justice file criminal charges for that new statement that would not have been covered by the pardon, leaving Dr. Fauci little choice but to invoke his constitutional right to not walk directly into a trap.”
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., posted on social media that “Dr. Fauci deserves better.”
“It is a sad day indeed when leaders use their authority in ways that cause harm, feed ego, or damage individuals who have spent their lives in service to others,” Durbin said.
Republicans, however, argued that “no one is above the law” and that Fauci’s conduct violated it.
Because he received a full pardon from President Joe Biden, Fauci cannot be prosecuted for any criminal activity committed during the COVID-19 pandemic, including illegally using government resources to collect $1 million in award money and potentially lying under oath to Congress about gain-of-function research.
Yet due to the pardon, Fauci was legally required to answer lawmakers’ questions during last week’s hearing, Republicans argue.
They point to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Walker, which says that a pardoned person can no longer invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
Fauci’s refusal to answer the committee’s questions, then, amounted to a refusal to comply with a congressional order, Republicans argue.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said his team is already drafting a memo urging Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to criminally prosecute Fauci.
“[H]e wouldn’t answer questions about the tie he was wearing, the color of the carpet, the day of the week,” Hawley said. “I think it’s pretty clear: given that Dr. Fauci’s 111 invocations of the Fifth Amendment included questions that he could have no fear of prosecution on – he’s not going to get prosecuted for the color of his tie – shows that he had no interest and no intention of answering any of our questions, and that is an abuse.”
Both Democrats and Republicans have accused each other in the past of pursuing accountability only along partisan lines.
Democratic lawmakers spent years launching investigations into President Donald Trump’s financial dealings and potential mishandling of classified documents. Republicans pushed for the indictment of former FBI director James Comey, who oversaw an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
