Live updates: Senate committee votes to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress - CNN

The GOP members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted along party lines to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci, who directed the US Covid-19 pandemic response, in contempt of Congress.
The vote followed a hearing last week in which Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 100 times, declining to answer questions out of concern his responses could be used to bring charges against him.
Committee Chair Rand Paul, who has long blamed Fauci for shortcomings in the US pandemic response, said the contempt referral would be delivered directly to the Department of Justice and the attorney general, bypassing a full Senate vote.
Bypassing the full Senate breaks with precedent for rare contempt votes and would require Vice President JD Vance's sign-off due to his constitutional role as president of the chamber; Paul did not rule out a Senate vote in the future.
CNN legal analyst Elie Honig said federal prosecutors face a difficult calculation over whether to bring charges, describing the case against Fauci's right to invoke the Fifth Amendment as murky at best.
Democrats sought to table the vote to hear from Fauci's lawyer and legal experts, while his attorney David Schertler called the move a "crude political stunt" aimed at punishing Fauci for exercising his constitutional rights; GOP senators including Bernie Moreno, Rick Scott and Josh Hawley celebrated the outcome on social media.