Senate investigators obtain Fauci's phone ahead of contempt vote

Senate investigators obtained a copy of Anthony S. Fauci’s cellphone from the Trump administration and the Department of Health and Human Services, giving the committee a new evidentiary source just before a contempt vote that could be referred to the Justice Department. The timing matters because the Senate panel is not just revisiting Fauci’s pandemic record, it is deciding whether unanswered questions from his testimony can support a formal contempt finding.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, chaired by Rand Paul, was set to vote Thursday at 8:30 a.m. EDT on a resolution to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress. Paul has said Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times during a Senate hearing on COVID-19 origins and the government response, turning a witness appearance into a clash over whether the committee can force answers from one of the pandemic’s central public health figures.

Ron Johnson, who chairs the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, said the phone records could address questions Fauci declined to answer at the hearing. On July 29, Johnson requested interviews with Fauci, Peter Marks and other former federal health officials on the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines, and said he hoped Fauci would be cooperative and transparent. Johnson also warned that if Fauci failed to comply voluntarily or delayed the interview, he would use compulsory process.

The cellphone copy gives investigators a possible trail of communications from Fauci’s years as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a period now under intense Republican scrutiny. The congressional inquiry has overlapped with House Oversight Committee material focused on David Morens and allegations that NIH records may have been deleted or routed through personal email to avoid FOIA. That broader records fight has widened the dispute beyond testimony alone and into how federal health officials handled documentation, retention and transparency.

A contempt of Congress finding is generally treated as a federal misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $100,000, and it can be referred to the Justice Department. Some Republicans, including Joni Ernst, have backed the contempt effort after Fauci repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment, while other senators are using the vote to press the larger question of whether Congress is seeking new facts or escalating a long-running pandemic accountability battle.