Rand Paul Takes Another Swing at Getting Fauci Federally Prosecuted

Republican Sen. Rand Paul is pushing the Justice Department a fourth time to investigate Anthony Fauci.

Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which the Kentucky senator chairs, voted Thursday to hold the nation’s former COVID-19 adviser in contempt of Congress.

Paul said he would refer the resolution to the Department of Justice rather than sending it to the full Senate, where Democrats would likely block it.

It’s unclear whether the Justice Department will take action. While Fauci remains a punching bag for Republicans furious over pandemic restrictions, the agency previously declined to investigate him under both presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

But the pardon doesn’t protect Fauci from state prosecution — something GOP attorneys general in Louisiana, Alabama and Florida have said they’re considering. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama), who is running for governor, said at last week’s hearing that Fauci should be “locked up” and suggested he should be put on trial.

Fauci suggested he is fearful of prosecution, saying at the hearing’s outset that he believed Paul has an “unhinged obsession” with jailing him.

Fauci has kept a low profile in recent years, but Paul’s release last week of diaries he kept during the pandemic resparked a furious public debate over the origins of the coronavirus.

Republicans and conservatives say Fauci lied to the public about the virus’ origins, although his diary entries show he believed early in the pandemic that it came from an animal. Scientists remain divided over whether the origin was natural or from a lab leak, although more side with the possibility that it passed from an animal to a human.