January 1, Fauci Faces CONTEMPT Vote—Paul Vows Swift Criminal Referral

Wyatt’s Take

• Rand Paul is moving to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress after he refused to answer over 100 questions by invoking the Fifth Amendment—despite Biden’s sweeping pardon supposedly giving him immunity
• Paul says the votes are there to pass contempt charges and he’ll immediately refer Fauci to the Department of Justice for potential prosecution
• The Kentucky senator questions whether Biden’s last-minute pardon actually protects Fauci from being compelled to testify, setting up a major legal showdown

Senate Republicans are preparing to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci accountable for stonewalling Congress last week, and the senator leading the charge says he has the votes to make it happen.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, is moving forward with contempt charges against Fauci after the former COVID czar refused to answer questions under oath. Instead of testifying as subpoenaed, Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment over 100 times during Thursday’s hearing.

“I think there is a very good chance that we will win the vote,” Paul told Fox News Digital.

And Paul isn’t wasting any time once contempt passes.

“The next step will be when we send the referral over directly to the Department of Justice,” he said.

Paul introduced the contempt resolution on Tuesday. Once it clears committee, it heads straight to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia for potential criminal prosecution.

The Kentucky Republican has spent years battling Fauci, who served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and became the face of America’s disastrous COVID response. Paul has long argued that Fauci should face prison time and has worked to expose the truth about the virus originating from a lab leak in Wuhan, China—potentially connected to risky research funded under Fauci’s watch.

Last week’s hearing was supposed to be the climactic confrontation between Paul and Fauci. Instead, Fauci—following his lawyers’ advice—shut down completely.

“Although it pains me to do so because of the respect I have for the legislative branch of government, and my decades-long record of cooperating with Congress under the advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions,” Fauci said.

Those were the last substantive words Fauci spoke during the entire hearing.

Paul immediately moved to hold Fauci in contempt, arguing that his refusal to testify conflicts with the blanket pardon former President Joe Biden gave him on his way out the door. Biden granted Fauci a full and unconditional pardon covering all actions taken between January 1, 2014, and January 19, 2025.

“I think there’s another legal question that the courts may have to decide upon, and that is whether or not a presidential pardon offers you complete immunity,” Paul said as the hearing closed.

When pressed to elaborate on the legal questions surrounding Fauci’s pardon, Paul held back.

“It’s a good legal discussion, and we will make those legal points to DOJ in sending the referral over,” Paul said.

Why It Matters

For millions of Americans who lost loved ones, jobs, and years of normalcy during COVID, Fauci’s refusal to answer basic questions feels like a final insult. Rand Paul is doing what Washington rarely does—holding a powerful bureaucrat accountable. If Biden’s pardon means unelected officials can dodge Congress entirely, then the people have lost their voice. This contempt vote isn’t just about Fauci. It’s about whether anyone in the swamp ever has to answer for what they did to this country.