{"id":3445,"date":"2026-08-05T16:04:02","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T16:04:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=3445"},"modified":"2026-08-05T16:04:02","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T16:04:02","slug":"faucis-decision-to-invoke-the-fifth-amendment-tees-up-a-legal-debate-and-a-contempt-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=3445","title":{"rendered":"Fauci\u2019s decision to invoke the Fifth Amendment tees up a legal debate and a contempt vote"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Getting your Trinity Audio player ready…<\/strong><\/div>\n
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By ERIC TUCKER<\/strong><\/p>\n

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Dr. Anthony Fauci\u2019s decision to invoke the Fifth Amendment before Congress will be put to the test this week as a Republican-led committee prepares to vote to hold him in contempt and refer the matter to the Justice Department.<\/p>\n

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A contempt finding could open the door to an investigation into whether Fauci had a valid constitutional right against self-incrimination when he refused to answer dozens of questions from lawmakers at a committee hearing last week focused on his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Republican senators including Rand Paul of Kentucky, who subpoenaed Fauci and has called a contempt vote for Thursday, insist that a pardon the doctor received early last year from Democratic President Joe Biden left him ineligible for Fifth Amendment protections. A Senate resolution released Tuesday asserts that Paul found Fauci\u2019s privilege claims \u201cunsupported.\u201d<\/p>\n

But some legal experts say Fauci had reasons to invoke the Fifth Amendment, given the threat of potential state prosecutions and questions from President Donald Trump\u2019s administration about the validity of Biden\u2019s pardons. Any testimony from Fauci could have also prompted false-statement investigations like the ones the current Justice Department has repeatedly initiated against the Republican president\u2019s perceived adversaries.<\/p>\n

No matter what happens, the episode raises fresh and complicated questions about Congress\u2019 ability to compel testimony from previously pardoned witnesses \u2014 and the outcome could resonate beyond Fauci.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an important case because I think a lot of people anticipate that President Trump is going to issue similar pardons to many people in his administration who will end up being called before Congress, and the precedent here is important,\u201d said Mark Osler, a St. Thomas University law professor and pardon power expert.<\/p>\n

Paul\u2019s committee is moving to transmit the contempt referral from his Republican-led committee directly to the Justice Department. Whether the Justice Department would act on the referral is unclear.<\/p>\n

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Fauci\u2019s pardon protects him for past, not future, acts<\/h4>\n

Fauci, a longtime National Institutes of Health scientist and the nation\u2019s top infectious-disease expert, left the federal government in 2022 after more than five decades. He was among a group of perceived adversaries of Trump to be pardoned by Biden in one of the Democrat\u2019s final acts in office. The clemency covered acts from 2014 to the date in January 2025 when the pardon was issued.<\/p>\n

Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee say the pardon lifted the specter of criminal prosecution and left Fauci without a valid basis to invoke the Fifth Amendment \u2014 a bedrock constitutional protection found in the Bill of Rights but one typically available only to those who have a reasonable basis to believe they risk being charged over their testimony.<\/p>\n

While a blanket pardon theoretically removes a threat of prosecution, Fauci made clear he thought he had a good-faith basis to fear criminal charges. He invoked his Fifth Amendment rights more than 100 times.<\/p>\n

Before the hearing. Fauci said that Paul, the committee chairman, had an \u201cobvious obsession with calling for my prosecution.\u201d The purpose of his forced appearance \u201cis to get me to say something, anything, that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, quote, behind bars, unquote,\u201d Fauci said.<\/p>\n

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\n<\/div>\n

In the run-up to the hearing, Paul made dozens of Fauci-related posts on X, including ones teasing that he was going to confront the doctor for having earlier given false testimony \u2014 something Fauci has denied.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think his invoking the Fifth makes sense because he was invited into a situation where everyone in the country understood that Rand Paul was trying to set him up for a criminal prosecution,\u201d said Michael Gerhardt, a University of North Carolina law professor. \u201cIn that circumstance, one of the smartest things to do would be to make yourself a very small target and say as little as possible, and that\u2019s obviously what he did.\u201d<\/p>\n

In announcing the contempt vote, Paul noted on X that \u201cFauci refused to answer a single question, even though he knew he couldn\u2019t be charged for crimes\u201d during the decade covered by his pardon. Fauci\u2019s deflections encompassed even seemingly harmless questions, such as the color of the tie he was wearing \u2014 a reflection of an apparent belief that it was safer to refuse any testimony.<\/p>\n

There are factors that could tilt in favor of Fauci\u2019s strategy, including the fact that his pardon would not protect him from potential state prosecutions or from a federal prosecution related to any testimony that investigators deemed false. That may not be an idle concern given the number of false-statement investigations prosecutors have opened against Trump\u2019s political opponents.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s administration also has repeatedly called into question the validity of the Biden pardons, given Biden\u2019s frequent use of an autopen for official business. Legal experts say the pardons are valid.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe question is do you have a reasonable fear of prosecution, and Fauci\u2019s argument would be \u2014 yes, I received a pardon, yes, I believe that pardon covers and prevents prosecution but there have been statements from lots of people including Trump and other administration officials \u2026 raising questions about the validity of that pardon,\u201d said Ross Garber, a lawyer and expert in political investigations who has represented multiple clients who have invoked the Fifth Amendment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat,\u201d he added, \u201cis potentially a very viable argument.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul has discussed trying to fast-track a contempt referral<\/h4>\n

Paul said in an interview with Fox News Channel last week that he did not think \u201cthere\u2019s any rule\u201d requiring that a contempt referral from a committee go through the entire Senate. His committee is instead working to send the referral straight to the Justice Department.<\/p>\n

The contempt resolution states that the president of the Senate, Vice President JD Vance, \u201cshall certify\u201d the committee\u2019s referral and the accompanying report to the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.<\/p>\n

That fast-tracking of the process avoids the need for a vote in the full 100-member Senate, where Republicans likely lack the 60 votes required to move a contempt referral to passage.<\/p>\n

Read more Echostar puts another subsidiary under bankruptcy protection<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Republican-led Senate committee prepares to vote to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress after he invoked the Fifth Amendment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3444,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-politics","category-news","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nFauci\u2019s decision to invoke the Fifth Amendment tees up a legal debate and a contempt vote - Colorado Springs Moverss<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=3445\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fauci\u2019s decision to invoke the Fifth Amendment tees up a legal debate and a contempt vote - 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