The only contempt that occurred during Dr. Anthony Fauci’s hearing in the Senate was its members’ regard for the Constitution.

GOP members of the committee that questioned Fauci about his leadership during the Covid pandemic voted Thursday to hold the former top health official in contempt of Congress for invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. While the full Senate is unlikely to muster the 60 votes necessary to overcome a filibuster and adopt the resolution, the committee’s vote is a cynical ploy to portray Fauci as a villain without any basis in law.

Senator Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, has accused Fauci of authorizing funding of the lab in China where the virus may have originated and lying to Congress about his role. Fauci, who served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases during President Donald Trump’s first term, denies these allegations and has maintained the view that the virus originated naturally.

During last week’s hearing, Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right more than 100 times in response to questioning from members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Fauci explained that he did so because of Paul’s “repeated public pledges that I [Fauci] end up, in his [Paul’s] words, ‘behind bars.’”

The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution provides that “[n]o person... shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.” This right is fundamental to the US system of criminal........

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