Grouchy Fauci.
Dr. Anthony Fauci looked downright miserable Thursday after a Senate committee voted to hold him in contempt for refusing to answer questions about his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Just hours after the vote to refer him to the Justice Department for potential prosecution, a sullen-looking Fauci was spotted frowning as he dutifully wheeled a recycling bin to the curb of the $2.4 million Washington, DC, home he shares was his wife and Georgetown University colleague, Christine Grady.
Fauci later hopped in the passenger seat of a vehicle and was driven away by his wife.
Grady, apparently enraged by the photographer’s presence in their tony neighborhood, flipped off the camera before peeling off.
Fauci stared blankly out the window as his wife made the rude gesture.
Earlier Thursday, the Senate Homeland Security Committee voted 8-5 along party lines to hold the former director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in contempt of Congress after he invoked his Fifth Amendment rights 111 times last week.
If convicted of a misdemeanor contempt charge, Fauci could face up to one year in prison and a $1,000 fine.
Republican senators contend that Fauci’s opening statement — and the pardon he received from then-President Joe Biden for any potential crimes committed between January 2014 and January 2025 — prevented him from being able to plead the Fifth.
“The assertion of a Fifth Amendment privilege only adheres to those instances where the witness has a reasonable fear of future prosecution, and it must be tailored to any such fear,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) noted.
The Brooklyn-born doctor had been hauled in to testify after being subpoenaed by Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who has accused Fauci of covering-up the origins of COVID-19 and misleading the public about the disease.
Meanwhile, three state attorneys general have also subpoenaed Fauci as part of a joint probe into the former COVID czar.
