Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, is calling for former White House COVID-19 advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci to be held in contempt of Congress, prosecuted for perjury, and sentenced to jail. Cruz made the demand after Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 100 times during a Senate hearing on Wednesday. The hearing, convened by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, was meant to examine Fauci’s role in the federal pandemic response.
In an interview following the hearing, Cruz described Fauci as «the most damaging bureaucrat in the history of America.» He argued that Fauci had demonstrated «contempt for Congress and contempt for the American people for decades.» Cruz pointed to Fauci’s private diaries, which were recently released, as evidence that Fauci deliberately misled the public. According to Cruz, the diaries show that Fauci wrote early on that the COVID-19 virus likely did not originate at the Wuhan wet market, yet he publicly stated the opposite.
Committee Chairman Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, announced he would seek contempt charges against Fauci for refusing to answer any substantive questions during the hearing. Paul’s move followed Fauci’s blanket invocation of the Fifth, which critics said lacked legal justification given his status as a private citizen and former government advisor. Cruz echoed Paul’s stance, stating, «He should be held in contempt, he should be prosecuted for perjury, and he should go to jail.»
The controversy centers on Fauci’s handling of the pandemic and allegations of dishonesty about the origins of the virus and the rationale for school closures. Cruz accused Fauci of pushing for the lockdown of schools, noting that Fauci wrote in his diary that he convinced officials in New York and California to shut down their school systems. This contradicted Fauci’s public statements and sworn testimony before the House Oversight Committee, where he claimed he «did not close the schools.»
«In his diary, he brags about convincing Democrats in New York and California to shut schools down, and yet he goes on TV and says, ‘Oh, I wasn’t for shutdowns,’» Cruz said. He called the school closures «the single most destructive public policy step we’ve seen in decades,» adding that the resulting learning loss would affect children for the rest of their lives.
The clash between Cruz and Fauci is part of a long-standing feud between Fauci and several Republican senators, including Paul. The senators have repeatedly criticized Fauci’s pandemic response and his statements about the virus’s origins. In particular, Cruz seized on Fauci’s diary entries suggesting that scientists considered the possibility of a deliberately inserted laboratory origin for the virus — a theory Fauci later downplayed in public briefings and congressional testimony.
«Years from now, they’ll look back and say, ‘What collective madness overtook this country?’» Cruz said, characterizing Fauci’s actions as a betrayal of public trust. He argued that Fauci’s pattern of contradicting his own private writings with public statements amounted to a deliberate campaign to mislead both Congress and the American people.
The call for contempt and perjury charges adds a new dimension to the ongoing political debate over accountability for pandemic-era policies. With Senator Paul already moving forward with contempt proceedings, the Judiciary Committee may soon take up the matter. Meanwhile, Fauci and his legal team have not yet responded publicly to Cruz’s remarks or to the threat of criminal referral.
The hearing and subsequent demands underscore the deep and lasting divisions over how the federal government managed the COVID-19 pandemic. Critics argue that Fauci’s handling of information and his influence over public health decisions warrant legal scrutiny, while supporters defend his actions as necessary during an unprecedented global health crisis.