1. United States
2. Colo.
3. Letter

Vote against the contempt referral targeting Dr. Anthony Fauci. Rand Paul is bypassing a full Senate vote — because Republicans lack the 60 votes to pass it — and fast-tracking the referral directly to the Justice Department. That procedural maneuver alone should disqualify this effort as a legitimate oversight exercise. Fauci had every reason to invoke the Fifth Amendment. His pardon doesn't shield him from state prosecutions or from false-statement charges if investigators decided to scrutinize his testimony. This Justice Department has already opened multiple such investigations against Trump's political opponents. Legal experts, including a lawyer who has represented Fifth Amendment clients in political investigations, called his argument "potentially a very viable argument." Paul himself spent weeks on social media promising to put Fauci "behind bars" — that's not oversight, it's a setup. Holding someone in contempt for protecting themselves from a politically motivated prosecution is an abuse of congressional power, and I expect you to say so publicly and vote no.