Paul says Senate panel to vote on holding Fauci in contempt

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said Wednesday he would push to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress after the former head of the U.S. COVID-19 pandemic response invoked his Fifth Amendment right at a hearing on Capitol Hill.

"That's a vote that will happen in committee next week. It will be in contempt of Congress," Paul told reporters after the hearing.

"We believe that with his ... immunity from criminal liability, that he didn't need to hide behind the Fifth Amendment and that maybe the Fifth Amendment doesn't attach when you have a pardon in place," he continued. "That'll be a legal question, but the question on contempt will be voted on, and then there's a question of whether or not the Department of Justice will take that up."

"I've recommended before for his criminal prosecution, and neither the Biden DOJ nor the Trump DOJ have taken it up," Paul said. "All I can do is recommend prosecution. I can't initiate prosecution."

"You don't have any rights under the Fifth Amendment because you've been pardoned, as you very well know," Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said. "You know that. Your lawyers sitting behind you, now shifting nervously in your chairs, they know it."

The committee's ranking member, Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), accused Paul of "relitigating the past" in his opening remarks.

"One-sided investigations designed to validate pre-determined conclusions do not serve the American people, who sent us to actually uncover the truth and solve problems," he said.