Senate committee set to vote on whether to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress

Anthony Fauci, a former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, listens during a hearing with the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on July 29. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images hide caption

Anthony Fauci, the 85-year-old retired health official who helped lead the U.S. government's response to the coronavirus pandemic, faces a contempt-of-Congress vote Thursday.

The punitive measure under consideration by the Republican-led Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee comes after he refused to answer lawmakers' questions in a hearing last week , citing his Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination.

In an opening statement, Fauci said that the committee chairman, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has "an unhinged obsession" with him and suggested the hearing was convened in an attempt to trick Fauci into lying under oath.

"Therefore, although it pains me to do so because of the respect I have for the legislative branch of government and my decades-long record of cooperating with Congress," Fauci said, "under the advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions."

Fauci told the committee he had answered many of their questions already during previous testimony.

Fauci, the United States' leading infectious disease expert during the pandemic, has long sparred with Paul over the origins of the pandemic. In the days leading up to last week's hearing, Paul released more than 1,000 pages of Fauci's private diary entries, pointing to them as evidence that he masked private uncertainty about what caused the pandemic.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., delivers his opening statement as Fauci testifies before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on July 29. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images hide caption