Fauci held in contempt as COVID cellphone lands in hands of Senate investigators

Senate Republicans moved to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress in their pursuit of forcing the former architect of the nation’s COVID-19 response to go on record about his actions leading up to and during the pandemic.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted on sharp party lines to charge Fauci, the former chief medical advisor to the president, with contempt after he refused to answer questions from both sides of the aisle over fear of self-incrimination.

The move follows Fauci’s decision to invoke his Fifth Amendment rights more than 100 times during his hearing last week, which prompted the panel’s chair, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., to vow that he would face "repercussions" for not testifying, or at least how Paul envisioned.

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Typically, once a contempt resolution passes by committee, it heads to the Senate floor for a full vote. However, Paul’s resolution allows that step to be skipped altogether and allows him to send the referral directly to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.

But Paul wants the Department of Justice (DOJ) involved as soon as possible. There’s also the question whether Fauci’s pardon from former President Joe Biden protected him during the hearing, which Paul hopes to find answers to.

"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 ahead of the hearing.

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It’s another chapter in the feud between Paul and Fauci that has extended over the last several years since the onset of the pandemic.

Paul has accused the former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) director of funding "risky" research that led to an alleged lab leak of the COVID-19 virus in China and has demanded that he end up behind bars.

And in the background, a copy of Fauci’s pandemic-era cellphone is now in the possession of Senate Republican investigators.

Fox News Digital confirmed that the Robert F. Kennedy Jr.-led Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) sent over a copy of the phone to the Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations chaired by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis.

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That committee falls under the umbrella of Paul’s Homeland Security panel, which also received a trove of over 1,000 pages of Fauci’s personal diary before last week’s hearing.

It is unclear if Johnson and Paul have access to the information on the phone.

Meanwhile, across the marble expanse of the Capitol, Republican investigators in the House are cooking up their own probe into Fauci.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., previously signaled that he was not done with Fauci, either.

After the longtime public health official pleaded the Fifth Amendment during his Senate hearing, Comer questioned the validity of his preemptive pardon granted by President Joe Biden. He also said his committee would be questioning Fauci further, though he did not elaborate.

"If former President Biden’s blanket autopen pardon is valid, then Dr. Fauci has no right to refuse to answer questions," Comer said, noting his committee had done extensive work probing the autopen pardons. "Based on the release of Dr. Fauci’s diary, which should have been provided to the House Oversight Committee last Congress...we’ll be asking Dr. Fauci whether he stands by his previous testimony to our Committee."