Dr. Anthony Fauci’s wife made her feelings toward the media unmistakably clear Thursday, flashing her middle finger at a photographer just hours after a Senate committee voted to hold her husband in contempt of Congress.
Fauci and his wife, Christine Grady, were photographed outside their Washington, D.C., home following the latest escalation in the former government health official’s battle with Republican lawmakers.
Fauci appeared downcast as he wheeled a recycling bin toward the curb outside the couple’s $2.4 million home.
The former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases later got into the passenger seat of a vehicle driven by Grady, who works at Georgetown University.
As the couple prepared to leave, Grady raised her middle finger toward the photographer. Fauci, meanwhile, appeared expressionless as he looked out from the passenger side of the vehicle.
The gesture came only hours after the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee advanced a contempt resolution against Fauci over his refusal to answer lawmakers’ questions concerning the COVID-19 pandemic.
Committee Chairman Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has been leading the congressional investigation and subpoenaed Fauci to testify before the panel in late July.
Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 111 times during that hearing, according to multiple reports.
“Although it pains me to do so, because of the respect I have for the legislative branch of government, and my decades-long record of cooperating with Congress, under the advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions,” Fauci told lawmakers at the beginning of his testimony.
Paul and other Republican senators have challenged Fauci’s reliance on the Fifth Amendment because former President Joe Biden issued Fauci a preemptive pardon before leaving office.
The pardon covered potential federal offenses dating from Jan. 1, 2014, through the end of Biden’s presidency, but Fauci has maintained that answering questions during the current investigation could still expose him to potential prosecution.
Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley (R) was among the lawmakers who disputed Fauci’s position during the hearing.
“The assertion of a Fifth Amendment privilege only adheres to those instances where the witness has a reasonable fear of future prosecution, and it must be tailored to any such fear,” Hawley said.
Fauci’s attorneys have rejected the Republicans’ interpretation and argued that the former health official continues to have legitimate reasons to invoke his constitutional rights.
Paul announced following Thursday’s vote that he intended to refer the matter to the Justice Department for potential prosecution rather than allow the dispute to end with the committee proceeding, per Trending Politics.
“Holding a witness in contempt is a serious thing, and it should be rare,” Paul said during the meeting. “But the contempt power exists for precisely this circumstance.”
President Donald Trump also weighed in Thursday, suggesting Fauci should face prosecution over the matter.
Fauci became one of the most recognizable figures in the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic, serving as a top federal infectious disease official and advising both the Trump and Biden administrations.
His handling of the pandemic has remained a source of fierce political debate years later, particularly regarding federal funding for virus research, pandemic restrictions and questions surrounding COVID-19’s origins.
Paul has spent years publicly clashing with Fauci over those issues and has accused him of misleading Congress and the American public. Fauci has denied wrongdoing and characterized Paul’s continued pursuit of him as politically motivated.
The congressional fight is not Fauci’s only potential legal headache. Three state attorneys general have also subpoenaed him as part of a separate investigation, according to the New York Post.
Thursday’s scene outside Fauci’s home provided a striking personal glimpse of the pressure surrounding that mounting scrutiny, with Grady responding to the photographer not with words, but with an unmistakable one-finger gesture.
