Dem
47
GOP
53
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is supposed to be a libertarian. Yes, he has an (R) by his name, but that's because you can't get elected as an (L)—too bad for the staff legal expert. And a libertarian is supposed to care about civil liberties—it's literally right there in the name. But apparently, that does not matter when there are personal grudges in play, because yesterday Paul muscled through a "successful" contempt of Congress vote against Dr. Anthony Fauci.
As a reminder, Fauci appeared before the Paul-led Senate Homeland Security Committee last week. After reading a statement in which he asserted (correctly, by all indications) that this was just political theater, either meant to entrap him or to give Republicans soundbites for the elections (or both), he refused to answer any questions, and pleaded the Fifth over a hundred times. This left Paul steaming mad.
With relatively few options at his disposal, Paul persuaded all of the Republicans on his committee to vote to refer Fauci to the Department of Justice to face potential charges. The Senator did not refer the matter to the whole Senate; their time is very limited right now (see above), and he may have had reason to believe that the votes weren't there.
Although this may seem like a legal item, and the province of the aforementioned (L), it's really not. It is exceedingly unlikely this will go anywhere, for three main reasons. The first is that while it may sound very official to have a committee (or the whole Senate) vote to refer someone for contempt of Congress charges, it doesn't really mean anything. You can contact the Department of Justice right here, if you want, and make your own referral. The DOJ has no obligation to act on such a referral, whether it is from a random person on the Internet or from a Senate committee.
The second problem is that the core of the legal argument, being made by the ophthalmologist Paul, is that Fauci got a pardon from Joe Biden, that he is therefore immune to criminal charges, and that he is therefore unable to invoke the Fifth. However, Fauci could still face state-level charges (and, indeed, Florida is thinking about trying it). Further, he could plausibly face charges for things that happened in the 18 months since the pardon was issued. If Fauci tells a judge that he was concerned that someone who openly and repeatedly said he wanted Fauci to be imprisoned might try to find a way to get Fauci imprisoned, a judge is likely to find that compelling.
The third problem is that even if Fauci was wrong to invoke the Fifth, that probably doesn't rise to the level of contempt. Paul's best plausible outcome here (and even this is a long shot), is that a judge says that Fauci was wrong, there are some appeals, and then maybe he has to return to the Senate to be questioned again, this time without invoking the Fifth. If so, that will only happen if the Republicans keep the Senate and Paul keeps his chairmanship. Further, Fauci is clever enough to give non-answer answers to questions, if that is what he absolutely has to do. For example, he could pull a Marshawn Lynch, and answer every question with: "I am here because a judge says I have to be here." Not pleading the Fifth, and not perjury either, but not giving Paul what he wants.
In truth, this story is a political item, which is why (Z) is handling it. It will be very interesting to see what acting AG Todd Blanche does with this referral. On one hand, he has absolutely no problem using his office in service of personal and partisan goals. On the other hand, the high-profile, embarrassing losses are piling up, and a high-profile, embarrassing loss is a very probable outcome here. Also, Blanche has thus far used and abused his powers in service of Donald Trump's needs, not in service of the needs of the GOP. And Trump hates Paul, while Fauci is not among Trump's top 200 bugaboos.
What we are suggesting here is that if Blanche acts on the referral, then he's making clear that he's a partisan actor who will try to help the Republican Party's fortunes however he can. On the other hand, if Blanche takes a pass, it strongly suggests that he's really just Trump's personal lawyer, and that the GOP only gets the benefit of Blanche's corruption in those cases where Trump is the main beneficiary, and his party is just along for the ride. (Z)