Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) started Tuesday off by teasing the coming markup of contempt charges against Anthony Fauci, and ended it by sharing those charges with the world.
In his resolution, Paul set out his formal case for Fauci to be referred to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for criminal contempt charges. This comes after Fauci pleaded the Fifth over 100 times during his July 29 (non)testimony before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, which is chaired by Sen. Paul.
The resolution begins:
Authorizing the President of the Senate to certify the report of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate regarding the refusal of Dr. Anthony S. Fauci to answer questions pertinent to the subject under inquiry before the Committee as required by Committee subpoena.
The crux of Paul's argument for criminal charges being levied against Fauci can be broken into two parts.
In the first, he argues that President Biden's pardon nixed Fauci's excuse for not answering questions at the hearing and didn't cover questions being asked within the scope of the pardon. Because the pardon covers potential federal offenses committed between January 1, 2014 and January 19, 2025 – as related to Fauci's government service – Paul ruled that Fauci could not reasonably claim that answering questions would expose him to federal prosecution.
The second part of Paul's argument maintained that Fauci waived any remaining Fifth Amendment privileges when he gave a "substantive" opening testimony. Before he refused to answer any questions, Fauci voluntarily discussed his time in the federal government and prior congressional testimony. By doing so, Fauci opened himself up to having to answer follow-up questions to his opening statement.
He didn't, and now he could be in big trouble.
🚨DROPPED: My contempt resolution for Anthony Fauci pic.twitter.com/JKiYEbwgtX
— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) August 4, 2026
Now that Paul's resolution has been made public, it goes next to the Senate committee for a Thursday markup.
If Paul’s resolution passes committee Thursday, there are several routes that he could take.
Typically, the resolution would proceed to the full Senate and would need to overcome a 60-vote threshold, meaning Paul would need some Democratic support.
He has reportedly signaled he might try to avoid that route by referring Fauci directly to the Justice Department for prosecution.
Jonathan David Shaub, a professor of law and public policy at the University of Kentucky’s Rosenberg College of Law, has some doubts about that path, saying, “It would really be up to the Justice Department to decide if that was valid or not.”
A second route is through Vice President JD Vance, who also serves as the president of the Senate.
According to Shaub, the U.S. code that governs prosecutions can be interpreted to mean that after a favorable committee vote the Senate president can refer an individual to the Justice Department for prosecution in lieu of a floor vote, but only if Congress is not in session.
If Rand Paul is successful with either route, it will be the job of U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro to prosecute Fauci.
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