Fauci’s decision to invoke the Fifth Amendment tees up a legal debate and a contempt voteDr. Anthony Fauci is sworn in before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee at the Capitol, Wednesday, July 29, 2026, in Washington. Paul’s committee is moving to transmit the contempt referral from his Republican-led committee directly to the Justice Department. Fauci’s pardon protects him for past, not future, actsFauci, a longtime National Institutes of Health scientist and the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, left the federal government in 2022 after more than five decades. 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. 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.