Accused of hiding the origin of Covid/ Senate finds Anthony Fauci guilty of contempt of Congress

2026-08-06 23:52:07Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
Accused of hiding the origin of Covid/ Senate finds Anthony Fauci guilty of
Anthony Fauci

A US Senate committee voted to convict Dr. Anthony Fauci after he ignored Congressional orders.

The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs approved a proposal initiated by its Republican chairman, Rand Paul, an early opponent of Fauci, in a vote where members were divided by party affiliation (result 8-7).

The vote followed a hearing last week during which Fauci, who is 85 and retired in 2022 - relied on the Fifth Amendment (the right to remain silent) more than 100 times.

This vote marks the sharpest escalation yet in a broad campaign by Republicans and the Trump administration to reexamine the issues of the pandemic and hold accountable the officials who led the US response to it.

Republican Paul has pursued a years-long investigation to test his and other Republicans' belief that Fauci orchestrated an effort to hide the origins of the coronavirus.

US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has overturned federal health policy due to his distrust of pandemic-era science, framing the restructuring of health agencies as a confrontation with what the administration calls "mandatory orders" in the COVID-19 response. Both blame Fauci and have written books criticizing him.

Democrats introduced five motions to delay the vote, but all failed due to partisan divisions. One, proposed by the committee's top Democrat, Senator Gary Peters of Michigan, would have required Paul to pledge that he would not bypass the full Senate vote by referring the matter directly to the Justice Department.

Fauci, who led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for 38 years, became the face of the US response to the pandemic and a major target of anger over the measures taken against the virus that has killed more than 1.1 million Americans.

President Donald Trump and many conservatives criticized him for his isolation measures, mask-wearing and social distancing guidelines, and for promoting vaccines, which were overly politicized despite being proven safe and effective.

Fauci and public health scientists around the world supported these measures based on the scientific evidence available at the time.


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