Sen. Rand Paul is moving quickly to turn Dr. Anthony Fauci’s silent Senate performance into a contempt fight, and the Kentucky Republican says he believes the votes are already lined up.

Paul, who chairs the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, is preparing a committee vote on whether to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress after the former top federal health official refused to answer questions under subpoena, as reported by Fox News.

Fauci appeared before the panel last week for what was expected to be a major confrontation over the federal government’s COVID-19 response, the Wuhan lab leak theory, and the risky research questions that have followed him for years.

Instead, the man who spent the pandemic lecturing Americans from every available television camera invoked the Fifth Amendment repeatedly and declined to answer lawmakers’ questions.

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"I think there is a very good chance that we will win the vote," Paul told Fox News Digital.

If the committee approves the contempt resolution, Paul said he intends to move fast and send the matter to the Department of Justice.

"The next step will be when we send the referral over directly to the Department of Justice," he said.

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Paul introduced the contempt resolution Tuesday. The measure states that once the committee reports it out, the matter would be referred to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.

That would put the Biden-era health bureaucracy’s most famous face squarely in the hands of federal prosecutors, assuming the Justice Department is willing to treat congressional oversight like something more than an inconvenience.

Paul and Fauci have clashed for years over the origins of COVID 19, federal funding tied to research in China, and the public health decisions that reshaped American life during the pandemic.

For grassroots conservatives, the Paul and Fauci showdowns became one of the few moments in Washington where someone actually pressed the COVID establishment instead of applauding it.

The Kentucky Republican has accused Fauci of misleading the public and has argued that the former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director should face serious consequences.

Paul has also sought to force answers on whether the virus emerged from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, and whether federal money helped support dangerous research connected to that question.

Last week’s hearing was supposed to be the culmination of that long fight. Instead, Fauci’s lawyers advised him to refuse to answer, and he invoked his constitutional rights more than 100 times.

After making an opening statement explaining that he would not answer questions, Fauci said little beyond repeated invocations of the Fifth Amendment.

The silence immediately escalated the confrontation. Paul responded by preparing a contempt vote designed to compel testimony from a figure who has long been protected by media allies and praised by Democrats.

The issue is further complicated by former President Joe Biden’s pardon of Fauci before leaving office. Biden granted Fauci a full and unconditional pardon for actions taken from Jan. 1, 2014, through Jan. 19, 2025.

Paul suggested at the close of the hearing that the pardon may not settle every question surrounding Fauci’s refusal to testify.

"I think there's another legal question that the courts may have to decide upon, and that is whether or not a presidential pardon offers you complete immunity," Paul said as the hearing closed.

When asked to elaborate, Paul did not lay out the full argument publicly, but made clear the matter would be part of the referral.

"It’s a good legal discussion, and we will make those legal points to DOJ in sending the referral over," Paul said.

The contempt push places Fauci back at the center of a debate many in Washington would rather bury. Millions of Americans remember the lockdowns, school closures, mandates, shifting guidance, and smug certainty from officials who rarely admitted error.

Paul’s move signals that Senate Republicans are not finished asking who knew what, who funded what, and why so many questions were treated like conspiracy theories until evidence made them impossible to ignore.

If the committee vote succeeds, the next test will be whether the Justice Department handles the referral seriously. Conservatives will be watching closely, because accountability in Washington has a funny way of disappearing when the target is a favored member of the liberal establishment.

For now, Paul is betting that the votes are there, the record is clear, and Fauci’s refusal to answer has only made the demand for answers louder.

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