Dr. Anthony Fauci has declined a request to voluntarily appear before a second Senate panel, deepening a contempt-of-Congress standoff with Republicans that has been building since a combative hearing in late July.

The dispute traces back to a July 29 hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, where the former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 100 times rather than answer questions about the federal government's handling of the pandemic. "Under the advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right under the Fifth Amendment," Fauci told the panel, accusing committee chairman Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) of an "unhinged obsession" with him and suggesting the hearing was designed to trap him into a perjury charge.

A Party-Line Contempt Vote

On Aug. 6, the committee voted along party lines to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress over his refusal to answer. "He refused. That is what we are voting on today," Paul said, framing the vote as being about defiance of the panel's directive rather than pandemic policy itself. Ahead of the vote, Paul released more than 1,000 pages of Fauci's private diary entries, which he argued showed Fauci privately harbored doubts about the pandemic's origins even as he publicly downplayed the lab-leak theory. Paul has also contended that Fauci carries no legal risk in testifying, since he received a pre-emptive pardon from President Biden before leaving office.

"HE REFUSED. THAT IS WHAT WE ARE VOTING ON TODAY." — SEN. RAND PAUL

Now a second Senate committee, this one tied to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), has run into the same wall. In a letter to Johnson, a lawyer for Fauci wrote that compelling him to appear so soon after the contentious July hearing would amount to an effort to "impermissibly harass or degrade Dr. Fauci for political purposes."

The Washington Post reported that the decision drew swift criticism from Republicans who see it as further evidence Fauci is stonewalling oversight of the pandemic response, while Fauci's allies counter that the committees are engaged in a politically motivated pursuit of a retired official who has already testified extensively in prior years.

What happens next is unclear. Congress has limited direct enforcement tools against a contempt finding short of a criminal referral to the Justice Department, an option Senate Republicans have not yet formally pursued. For now, the standoff leaves two Republican-led panels without the testimony they sought and Fauci facing a formal contempt finding he has shown no sign of trying to resolve.