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In a pointed letter to Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican,
a lawyer for the former director of the National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases said any effort to compel him to
appear before a Senate subcommittee, after a contentious July 29
hearing, would be to "impermissibly harass or degrade Dr. Fauci
for political purposes.”
During the July hearing on his handling of the COVID-19
pandemic, Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment right against
self-incrimination 100 times, prompting the Aug. 6 contempt vote
and setting up a referral to the Justice Department for
potential investigation over whether he had properly exercised
his constitutional rights.
Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, the committee chairman
who pressed for the contempt finding, said the constitutional
protection did not apply because Democratic President Joe Biden
had issued a preemptive pardon to Fauci, and he did not need to
be concerned about potential prosecution.
Paul has long accused Fauci of misleading the public during the
pandemic and the July hearing was the latest episode in his
highly publicized confrontations with him. Paul has repeatedly
called for Fauci to be prosecuted and imprisoned.
Johnson, chairman of the subcommittee on investigations, had
sought to open a parallel avenue of congressional investigation
about Fauci's role in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic,
including the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines.
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