Republicans subpoena Fauci in contempt push over pandemic testimony

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier subpoenaed Anthony Fauci as Republican officials escalated a contempt push over the former federal health chief’s pandemic testimony. West Virginia Attorney General J.B. McCuskey and Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill joined the investigation, turning a Senate fight in Washington into a multi-state effort to probe Fauci’s conduct during Covid.

The Florida attorney general’s office said the subpoena was part of an official investigation into awards, professional opportunities and possible benefits tied to Fauci’s public-health role during the pandemic. The inquiry reflects a broader Republican campaign to revisit how Covid-era guidance was set, who benefited from it and whether senior officials gave complete answers under oath.

The immediate trigger was Fauci’s appearance before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in July, where he invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times. Sen. Rand Paul, who led the hearing, pressed Fauci on whether his prior testimony about the coronavirus pandemic had been truthful. Republican lawmakers then moved toward contempt action, arguing that his refusal to answer questions left key parts of the record unresolved.

Legal concerns around the hearing centered on whether Fauci’s answers could be used in perjury or criminal proceedings. That risk helped drive the repeated Fifth Amendment invocations, but it also gave Republicans new leverage to argue that Congress and state investigators still need more information about what Fauci said, when he said it and whether those statements matched the public record.

The state subpoenas go beyond Fauci’s personal defense and into the machinery of accountability itself. Uthmeier’s office said it was looking at whether Fauci received awards, outside opportunities or other benefits connected to his role in shaping federal Covid guidance. One account of the investigation said Uthmeier accused Fauci of being more focused on self-promotion than on legitimate safety concerns.

Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and former White House chief medical adviser, had already testified many times about Covid and its origin before the latest round of scrutiny. The new subpoenas show how Republican attorneys general are now joining congressional allies in trying to reopen the pandemic record, using the powers of their offices to ask not just what Fauci told the country, but who stood to gain from the answers.