Senators investigating the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic have now obtained a copy of Dr Anthony Fauci‘s phone during the unprecedented crisis as the health official awaits whether he will be held in contempt.
Fauci was grilled by senators on the Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations about public health measures during the pandemic, during which he refused to answer questions and invoked his Fifth Amendment right over 100 times.
On Thursday, the senators on the subcommittee will vote on whether to hold Fauci in contempt for refusing to answer the questions.
Senators have not said whether they will release their findings to the public, but the findings could be crucial to understanding how public health officials made decisions during the unprecedented pandemic.
The Department of Health and Human Services has obtained a copy of the phone and has transferred it to the subcommittee for review, the Wall Street Journal reported.
A spokesperson for Senator Ron Johnson, who chairs the subcommittee, told the publication that Fauci used the phone while serving as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
The subcommittee has pressed for documents related to how public health officials handled the pandemic, including Fauci’s journals, which were released earlier this week.
Sources familiar with the investigation told the Journal that Johnson and Senator Rand Paul have received millions of documents related to Fauci from government servers, and are still pushing for more.
Dr Anthony Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right during a hearing with the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. He is pictured above in front of the senators on July 29
Fauci refused to answer questions when grilled by senators on the subcommittee. He is seen before the elected officials during a hearing on July 29
Fauci has faced mounting pressure from the Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations to answer questions about the Covid-19 pandemic
Fauci served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 1984 to 2022 and was a critical leader during the Covid-19 pandemic.
His decisions during the health emergency have come under scrutiny and become the subject of political polarization.
After Donald Trump was elected president in 2024, then-President Joe Biden pre-emptively pardoned Fauci as Republicans vowed to federally prosecute the lead scientist.
Fauci has now found himself at the center of the subcommittee’s investigation, with Senator Paul accusing him of covering up a conspiracy theory that the virus came from a lab leak.
Fauci has denied the accusations against him and accused Paul of an ‘unhinged obsession’ with him.
‘Given Senator Paul’s obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution, his repeated slanderous comments about me, and recently his publicly releasing my unredacted personal diary aimed at embarrassing and intimidating me,’ Fauci said during his opening statement at the senate hearing.
‘The only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something, anything that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up in his words “behind bars.”‘
During questioning, he repeatedly told the senators: ‘On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.’
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