WorldDr. Anthony Fauci on Thursday was held in contempt of Congress by a Republican-led Senate committee, just over a week after the longtime federal health official invoked the Fifth Amendment, declining to answer questions about his guidance during the COVID-19 pandemic.Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment in response to over 100 questions at a hearing last weekCBC News · Posted: Aug 06, 2026 10:01 AM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hour agoListen to this articleEstimated 6 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.Ugly Fauci Senate hearing mirrors America's bitter political divideJuly 29|Duration 2:04The former head of America's COVID-19 response, Dr. Anthony Fauci, invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refused to answer questions over 100 times in a tense, Republican-led U.S. Senate hearing about his handling of the pandemic.Dr. Anthony Fauci on Thursday was held in contempt of Congress by a Republican-led Senate committee, just over a week after the longtime federal health official invoked the Fifth Amendment, declining to answer questions about his guidance during the COVID-19 pandemic. The committee was voting on whether to refer Fauci to the Justice Department, which would decide whether to investigate or potentially attempt to prosecute him for contempt. Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro — longtime advisers to U.S. President Donald Trump — each served prison sentences of about four months in 2024 after congressional contempt findings for refusing to appear before a House of Representatives panel examining the 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol.Fauci, 85, said the decision to not answer questions pained him, but that he was acting on the advice of his counsel. The right to plead the Fifth to avoid self-incrimination is protected under the U.S. Constitution under most circumstances.Fauci made at least 20 appearances before congressional committees after the emergence of the coronavirus, and his lawyers argued he had already appeared well past his retirement in mid-2024, with no substantial COVID-19 developments since then.More pointedly, his team cited threats before the hearing by committee chair Sen. Rand Paul and others, that Fauci faced possible prosecution if he perjured himself. Another federal health official, Dr. David Morens, was indicted earlier this year. "The only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to prompt me to say something, anything, that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, 'behind bars,'" Fauci said in a brief opening statement last week.It's not clear if the panel, the homeland security and government affairs committee, will test their contempt recommendation with a full Senate vote, or manouevre to send it directly to federal officials. While the Justice Department is not duty bound to follow a criminal referral from Congress, Democrats have accused the department in Trump's second term of pursuing specious prosecutions. LISTEN | The latest move against Fauci:Front Burner32:51Republican revenge against Anthony FauciControversial pardonPaul, trained as an ophthalmologist, has helped lead the charge against Fauci for six years. The first U.S. senator to contract the coronavirus, Paul has questioned nearly everything about COVID-19 from its inception, from masking to excess death totals.The Kentucky Republican also fended off criticism of his belated disclosure, by congressional rules, that his wife in February 2020 had invested in Gilead, maker of Remdesivir, which was often used as a COVID-19 treatment after previously being given to some hepatitis C patients. Why Fauci took the 5thJuly 29|Duration 1:27Dr. Anthony Fauci declined to answer questions from senators about his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic after being subpoenaed by the homeland security committee led by Sen. Rand Paul.Fauci received what was viewed as a somewhat unprecedented pardon from then-president Joe Biden, covering the immunologist's activities in government between 2014 and Biden's last day in office in January 2025. "We are voting on whether a witness who has received the benefit of a sweeping pardon can be ordered by this committee to answer questions and then defy that order without consequence," Paul said on Thursday.Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and other Democrats said holding Fauci in contempt would set a bad precedent. Blumenthal pointed out that Trump pleaded the Fifth hundreds of time during a deposition in New York state between the presidencies.Ongoing debate in U.S.The U.S., despite a reputation for public health and medical research excellence, suffered many more COVID-19 deaths overall and on a per capita basis — more than 1.2 million people at last comprehensive count — than other G7 countries. The U.S. has also seen more intense partisan divides over the years about the origins and handling of the pandemic, which was declared by the World Health Organization in March 2020. Fauci warned by Republicans not to perjure himself in Congress appearanceFormer Fauci adviser indicted for allegedly concealing communications related to COVID-19 researchFauci has served as a lightning rod and frequent target of ire among Republicans after he served as Trump's chief medical adviser in 2020, taking on a more prominent public-facing role than the officials who there then at the helm of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control. To supporters, Fauci has been a provider of sound scientific expertise. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush for his work on HIV/AIDS research from its earliest days of discovery in the 1980s to helping implement the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, considered one of the most impactful U.S. global health initiatives of all time.Republicans have accused Fauci of lying and evasiveness with respect to statements he made in 2020 regarding masks, distancing, the emerging COVID vaccines and the origins of the virus. They've accused the longtime head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of imperiousness, with Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin on Thursday derivisely referring him to as "Saint Fauci." LISTEN | Fauci talks with CBC in 2024:The Sunday Magazine28:00Dr. Anthony Fauci's journey from public health leader to political lightning rodFauci and his defenders have said that any shifting statements were made in the face of an unknown, rapidly evolving virus, and that any mistakes were made on a good-faith basis.Paul in his opening statement last week sought to build the case that Fauci helped produce the COVID-19 pandemic by approving funding of research on virus mutations and then covered up his complicity.Many scientists believe the COVID-19 virus most likely emerged in nature and jumped from animals to people, but Paul and many Republicans contend the virus might instead have leaked from a laboratory.The logic behind creating more dangerous viruses to understand them betterThe National Institutes of Health, where NIAID is housed, for years gave grants to a New York non-profit called EcoHealth Alliance, which used some of the funds to work with a Chinese lab studying coronaviruses commonly carried by bats. Fauci has been adamant that his government institute didn't directly fund risky gain-of-function research, and that it would be "molecularly impossible" for the work being done at the Wuhan Institute of Virology to be the original source of the virus. In a public letter weeks ago, more than 150 infectious-disease experts and other scientists wrote that "no credible evidence has been produced to support these absurd charges" and that they are "urging our elected representatives in Congress stop these witch-hunts." With files from The Associated Press