A US Senate committee has voted to hold former top health official Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress after he refused to answer questions during a hearing examining his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The vote – which fell along party lines – clears the way for the committee to refer the case to the justice department for potential prosecution for failing to comply with a congressional subpoena.

It remains unclear whether the department will pursue the case.

During his testimony last week, Fauci invoked his constitutional right against self-incrimination more than 100 times, arguing that Kentucky Senator Rand Paul was trying to put him “behind bars”.

In a statement following the vote, Fauci’s lawyer called it a “crude political stunt” being conducted to “punish Dr Fauci for exercising his constitutional right”.

The origins of the pandemic have been a matter of strong debate in the US, including between President Donald Trump, who was in office when it began in 2020, and public health officials, including Fauci.

Senator Rand Paul has for years accused Fauci of attempting to hide its origins and of funding a research lab in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where some believe the pandemic began with a lab-leak.

Most scientists believe that exposure to an infected animal is a more likely origin for the pandemic.

Former President Joe Biden gave Fauci a pre-emptive pardon on his last day in office in 2025, protecting him from federal prosecution for his actions between 2014 and 2025.

But Fauci could still face charges for anything after that date, including contempt of Congress. He could also face state or local charges that are not covered by the pardon.

“The chair directed Anthony Fauci to answer. He refused,” Kentucky Republican Rand Paul said ahead of the vote. “That is what we are voting on today — not his opinions, not his policies, not anything he said from the podium six years ago. “

“We are voting on whether a witness who has received the benefit of a federal pardon can be ordered by this committee to answer questions and then defy that order without consequence,” he added.

The Top Democrat on the committee, Michigan Senator Gary Peters, defended Fauci, accusing Paul of a “rushed investigation” and a “yearslong campaign” to prosecute Fauci.

Fauci has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, and last week accused Paul of having an “obvious obsession” with prosecuting him.

“The only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something – anything – that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, ‘behind bars’,” Fauci said.

Paul, the committee’s Republican chairman, bypassed a full senate vote on the contempt resolution saying he did not “want to waste time” going through the procedure.

Normally, contempt resolutions passed by the committee go to the full Senate, where they require a 60-vote majority. Republicans currently hold 53 seats in the 100-member Senate.

In a statement quoted by US news outlets, Dr Fauci’s lawyer, David Schertler, called on the Senate to “reject Senator Paul’s meritless and politically-motivated contempt resolution”.

“For years, Senator Paul has proclaimed to anyone who would listen that Dr Fauci should be prosecuted and put in prison,” Schertler added. “Dr Fauci has committed no crime — and Senator Paul knows it.”

Schertler had previously argued that he believes that the former top health official is on “solid legal ground” going forward, adding that Paul “may be a doctor, but he is not a lawyer”. Paul worked as an eye surgeon until he got elected to the US Senate in 2010.

“We are completely confident that Dr Fauci has a valid Fifth Amendment privilege here and is on solid legal ground in asserting it,” attorney David Schertler said in an e-mail to CBS, the BBC’s US partner, last week.

Taking the Fifth is not an admission of guilt – it is designed to protect individuals against coercion, mistakes, and unfair shifting of the burden to provide proof of wrongdoing.

Contempt prosecutions – and convictions – are rare.

In 2024, former Trump allies Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro were both convicted of contempt and sentenced to jail sentences, marking the first convictions since the 1980s.