Chairman Rand Paul, R-Ky., announced the contempt proceedings after Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 111 times during a contentious July 29 hearing. Paul referred Fauci to the Justice Department for possible prosecution in 2023 and renewed that referral in July 2025. BREAKING: Sen. Rand Paul is moving to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress after Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment over a hundred times during last week's Senate hearing. His Fifth Amendment invocations extended beyond questions about federal research funding and the virus’s origin to relatively basic inquiries about his government service and pandemic-era activities. Prosecutors would have to establish that Fauci willfully refused to answer questions that were relevant to a valid congressional investigation and that his Fifth Amendment claim was legally insufficient.