Former US health official Anthony Fauci is facing the possibility of contempt proceedings after a Senate committee voted to cite him for refusing to answer questions during a hearing into the government's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The committee approved the contempt resolution along party lines, paving the way for the matter to be referred to the US Justice Department, which will decide whether to pursue prosecution over Fauci's failure to comply with a congressional subpoena. It is, however, not yet clear whether prosecutors will take up the case.
The vote followed Fauci's appearance before the committee last week, where he repeatedly relied on his constitutional right against self-incrimination. During the hearing, he invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times, maintaining that Kentucky Senator Rand Paul was trying to put him "behind bars".
The latest move marks another chapter in the long-running clash between Fauci and Paul, who has spent years questioning Fauci's handling of the pandemic and his role in research linked to the virus.
Paul has accused Fauci of attempting to conceal the origins of Covid-19 and of supporting research at a laboratory in Wuhan, China, where one theory suggests the pandemic may have started through a laboratory leak.
However, many scientists continue to hold the view that the virus most likely spread to humans after exposure to an infected animal.
Defending the contempt resolution before the committee vote, Paul insisted the issue was not about Fauci's views or decisions during the pandemic.
"The chair directed Anthony Fauci to answer. He refused," Kentucky Republican Rand Paul said ahead of the vote. "That is what we are voting on today — not his opinions, not his policies, not anything he said from the podium six years ago."
"We are voting on whether a witness who has received the benefit of a federal pardon can be ordered by this committee to answer questions and then defy that order without consequence," he added.
The committee's top Democrat, Michigan Senator Gary Peters, opposed the move, accusing Paul of carrying out a politically driven investigation aimed at prosecuting Fauci.
Fauci has continued to reject any allegations of wrongdoing and argued during last week's hearing that Paul's actions were motivated by a personal campaign against him.
"The only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something - anything - that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, 'behind bars'," Fauci said.
Following Thursday's vote, Fauci's lawyer dismissed the contempt effort as politically motivated, describing it as a "crude political stunt" meant to "punish Dr Fauci for exercising his constitutional right".
In another statement carried by US media, attorney David Schertler urged lawmakers to block the resolution.
"For years, Senator Paul has proclaimed to anyone who would listen that Dr Fauci should be prosecuted and put in prison," Schertler added. "Dr Fauci has committed no crime — and Senator Paul knows it."
Schertler has also maintained that Fauci acted within the law by invoking the Fifth Amendment.
"We are completely confident that Dr Fauci has a valid Fifth Amendment privilege here and is on solid legal ground in asserting it," attorney David Schertler said in an e-mail to CBS, the BBC's US partner, last week.
He had earlier argued that Fauci remained on "solid legal ground" and dismissed Paul's legal position, saying the senator "may be a doctor, but he is not a lawyer". Paul practised as an eye surgeon before joining the US Senate in 2010.
The debate over the origins of Covid-19 has remained politically charged in the United States since the outbreak began in 2020 under President Donald Trump's first administration. Trump and Fauci frequently differed over the government's response to the pandemic and the question of where the virus originated.
Before leaving office in 2025, former President Joe Biden granted Fauci a pre-emptive federal pardon covering actions taken between 2014 and 2025. The pardon does not extend to any conduct after that period, meaning Fauci could still face possible contempt charges linked to his recent testimony. It also does not prevent any state or local legal action.
Paul also departed from the usual Senate process by deciding not to seek a full Senate vote on the contempt resolution, saying he did not "want to waste time" following that route.
Normally, contempt resolutions approved by a Senate committee proceed to the full chamber, where they require at least 60 votes to pass. Republicans currently control 53 of the Senate's 100 seats.
Legal experts note that invoking the Fifth Amendment is not an admission of guilt. The constitutional protection allows individuals to avoid answering questions that could expose them to criminal liability and is intended to guard against coercion, mistakes and shifting the burden of proof.
Contempt of Congress cases rarely lead to prosecution or conviction. In 2024, former Trump advisers Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro were convicted and jailed for contempt of Congress, becoming the first people to be convicted on such charges since the 1980s.