“Holding a witness in contempt is a serious thing, and it should be rare,” U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said. Paul’s resolution called for sending Fauci’s contempt vote to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., led by Jeanine Pirro. In February 2020 diary entries, Fauci acknowledged that 9 of 11 scientists on a conference call believed “deliberate insertion was possible.” However, from April 2020 to May 2020, Fauci publicly discredited the lab leak theory, including at a White House press briefing. “What he displayed last Wednesday was contempt for Congress, contempt for this committee, contempt for our investigation,” U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., said.