Sen. Rand Paul said he didn't want to 'waste time' waiting for a full Senate vote and would send the contempt referral directly to the Justice Department from his committee.WASHINGTON – A Republican-led Senate committee voted on Thursday, Aug. 6, to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci, the federal official who led the government's coronavirus response in 2020, in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions during a hearing last week.The panel advanced the resolution on an 8 to 5 vote, with two senators also voting no by proxy, to rebuke the infectious disease expert for asserting his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination during congressional testimony.Over several contentious hours on July 29, Fauci was repeatedly pressured by GOP lawmakers to discuss a number of both professionally and personally sensitive issues, ranging from his actions as the country's top pandemic expert to his own revealing diary entries.Fauci's stonewalling, pleading the Fifth more than 100 times, enraged Republicans, most notably Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, the chairman of the relevant committee, who accused him of defying Congress."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, quote, 'behind bars,'" Fauci told lawmakers. "Any reasonable person who has followed his unhinged obsession with me would readily come to the same conclusion."Paul has repeatedly advocated for the imprisonment of Fauci, his longtime political foe. Fauci stressed that it pained him to not answer senators' questions. He insisted he respected the legislative branch's authority and underlined his "decadeslong record of cooperating with Congress."Before leaving office, former President Joe Biden issued a pardon to Fauci for any actions he took as a federal public health official between 2014 and 2025. That fact has prompted Paul and other Republicans to claim that Fauci is immune from concerns about self-incrimination, something Fauci's lawyers and Democrats dispute, and left a cloud of legal questions swirling around the political spectacle."Do you incriminate yourself if you have a pardon?" Paul wondered. "I think that question’s for the courts."As larger legislative battles rage with the Senate about to leave town for August recess, it's not clear when, or if, the full chamber will ever take a vote on the contempt resolution. Paul also has the option, though, of sending his committee's criminal contempt referral directly to the Justice Department – a step he indicated he plans to take."I’ve made the decision that I don’t want to waste time over waiting a month and a half," he told reporters.Zachary Schermele is the congressional correspondent for USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and Bluesky at @zachschermele.bsky.social.