Senator Rick Scott backed a Senate committee decision to hold Dr Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress after Fauci declined to answer questions about his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Scott said Fauci “had to do was tell the truth”, framing the vote as an effort to secure accountability, while the case raises wider questions about Congress’s power to compel testimony from a previously pardoned witness.

The Republican-led Senate Homeland Security Committee approved the resolution 8–5 along party lines, after Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times at a hearing the previous week. The referral was sent to the Justice Department for review; Republicans argue President Biden’s pardon removes Fauci’s protection against self-incrimination, while Democrats and Fauci’s representatives dispute that view.