Dr. Anthony Fauci on Friday turned down a request to appear voluntarily before a second Senate panel, escalating a new line of Republican scrutiny into the former public health official’s role in the federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fauci’s attorney rejected the request from Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who chairs the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. The lawyer argued that forcing Fauci to testify again, following a combative July 29 Senate hearing, would “impermissibly harass or degrade Dr. Fauci for political purposes.”
Johnson has been pursuing a separate investigation focused on Fauci and the broader federal COVID-19 response, including questions surrounding the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines.
Fauci’s refusal follows a party-line vote last week by Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to hold him in contempt of Congress. The move came after Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 100 times during the July hearing.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., the committee’s chairman, has pushed to send the contempt referral directly to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia without waiting for a vote by the full Senate.
“It’s a good legal discussion, and we will make those legal points to DOJ in sending the referral over,” Paul told Fox News Digital before last week’s contempt vote.
The dispute centers on whether Fauci can still invoke the Fifth Amendment after former President Joe Biden granted him a preemptive pardon before leaving office.
Paul has maintained that Biden’s pardon eliminated Fauci’s exposure to federal prosecution, weakening the legal basis for his refusal to answer questions from lawmakers.
Fauci and his attorneys have disputed that position.
Paul has spent years investigating Fauci’s role in the government’s response to COVID-19 and has accused the former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director of funding “risky” research that led to an alleged lab leak of the COVID-19 virus in China.
Paul has repeatedly called for Fauci to be prosecuted.
Johnson’s subcommittee has separately obtained records related to Fauci and the government’s pandemic response. Fox News Digital previously confirmed that the Department of Health and Human Services sent the subcommittee a copy of Fauci’s pandemic-era cellphone.
The broader Homeland Security panel also received more than 1,000 pages of Fauci’s personal diary before his July hearing.
Fox News Digital reached out to Johnson’s office to ask whether he intends to subpoena Fauci following the refusal. Fox News Digital also sought reaction from Paul’s office and asked Fauci attorney David Schertler whether Fauci would comply with a subpoena compelling his testimony.
