Along party lines, Rand Paul’s GOP Senate Committee voted Thursday morning to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress after Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment rights in a show trial hearing last week.
Fauci invoked his constitutional rights because he believed the Republicans would try to use his testimony to prosecute him, as Poodle Paul has said he would like to see Fauci jailed. On Thursday, Paul and Republicans moved forward to do just that with an 8-7 vote.
Paul’s committee can refer the resolution directly to the Department of Justice, or he can ask John Thune to hold a full Senate vote, where it’s not likely there would be enough votes to clear a 60-vote threshold.
Paul has suggested he would send the criminal referral straight to the Department of Justice, rather than holding a vote in the full Senate. “We can debate that, but since it’s not really a law, it doesn’t have an exact procedure,” Paul told Fox News.
According to the New York Times:
For a contempt resolution to carry the force of Congress, the full Senate must adopt it; in that case, it would be sent to the U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., who could then present a case to a grand jury. But contempt resolutions require a 60-vote majority, and with 53 Republicans in the Senate, adoption is highly unlikely.
If Jeanine Pirro, the current U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, chooses to try to prosecute the case, her office would need to secure an indictment from a grand jury in the district, where she has had difficulty indicting a ham sandwich.