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Home – U.S. Senate News – Anthony Fauci Held in Contempt of Senate Committee: Now What?

Anthony Fauci Held in Contempt of Senate Committee: Now What?

Now that the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has voted along party lines to hold Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress, the inevitable question is: What happens next?

The answer is both straightforward and complicated. The statute is clear; the politics are not. And the history of contempt referrals teaches a familiar Washington lesson: Congress may speak loudly, but the executive branch often decides whether there will be criminal consequences.

The starting point is 2 U.S.C. § 192, the federal contempt of Congress statute. In plain English, any person summoned by either chamber of Congress, or by a committee of either chamber, to testify or produce documents who willfully defaults, refuses to produce records, or refuses to answer a pertinent question commits a misdemeanor. The punishment is modest on paper but serious in principle: not less than one month and not more than 12 months in jail, and a fine that ranges from $100 to $1,000.

Congress, of course, cannot try criminal cases. It can investigate, subpoena, question, and hold a witness in contempt. But criminal adjudication belongs to Article III courts, and criminal charging decisions belong to prosecutors.

That is where 2 U.S.C. § 194 comes in.

Section 194 sets out the next step. Once a witness’s failure or refusal is reported out of committee and filed with the president of the Senate or the speaker of the House, that officer is directed to certify the statement of facts under the seal of the Senate or House to the appropriate United States attorney, “whose duty it shall be to bring the matter before the grand jury for its action.”

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If the Senate follows the letter of the law, Chairman Rand Paul, R-Ky., or committee staff, will prepare the factual statement and send it to the president of the Senate. Despite what people may think, the president of the Senate is not the majority leader, Sen. John Thune, R-S.D. Under Article I, Section 3, Clause 4 of the Constitution, it is the vice president of the United States, JD Vance.

Senate leadership would then have to decide whether to bring the committee’s contempt resolution before the full Senate. If........

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