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Senate panel obtains Fauci phone before contempt vote
August 6, 2026
The Senate Homeland Security Committee has obtained a copy of Fauci's phone as it prepares to decide whether to hold him in contempt of Congress.
Fox News reports that the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has obtained a copy of Anthony Fauci's phone as it prepares to decide whether to hold him in contempt of Congress. CNN carries the same account and adds Senator Rand Paul's position: the committee would immediately send the results to the Department of Justice, and in Paul's view the panel needs no full Senate vote to refer Fauci for contempt charges. Fox News corroborates that account of Paul's remarks.
The backdrop, reported by Fox News and corroborated by CNN, is a contentious COVID-19 hearing at which Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment rights more than one hundred times; the contempt resolution follows from it. The New York Times, The Washington Post, and WSJ all carry the phone procurement in their own coverage, with the Times and the Post framing it as a Republican senator's move ahead of the looming contempt vote and WSJ describing the device as Fauci's Covid-era phone. Five outlets carry closely matching accounts, consistent with a shared original report.
What is settled: the committee has the phone, a contempt decision is pending, and Paul intends to route any referral straight to the Justice Department. What is not settled is everything downstream: whether the committee actually votes for contempt, and what the phone's contents show.
Still developing
The committee's contempt decision has not yet been made, and no outlet reports what the copied phone contains or when the panel will vote.