Trump officials secretly stall Fauci prosecution over fatal flaw: WSJ

Republican efforts to hit Anthony Fauci with contempt of Congress charges have stalled because of skeptical Trump officials, per The Wall Street Journal.

According to a Thursday report, Trump administration officials are holding up the GOP's threat to prosecute Fauci because of doubts about whether the legal approach supports an indictment by the Justice Department.

A GOP-led Senate committee voted to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress three weeks ago. The August 6 contempt vote was brought by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who brought Fauci into a hearing to face questions about his leadership of the country's COVID pandemic response. Fauci responded by pleading the Fifth more than 100 times.

The Journal reported, based on information from anonymous insiders, that Trump officials doubt that the GOP Senate's approach is "procedurally sound" enough to secure an indictment against Fauci.

Paul has called for Fauci to go to prison, but the contempt resolution would traditionally have been considered by the full Senate, The Journal noted. Paul's contempt resolution "would almost certainly fail" to meet a 60-vote threshold, The Journal reported.

Paul's resolution called on Vice President JD Vance to certify it in his capacity as Senate president, but insiders told The Journal as of Tuesday, Vance's office had yet to receive a document to certify the resolution despite Paul's office sending the report to the Vice President late Tuesday.

The DOJ also received a letter from Paul laying out the committee's case to prosecute Fauci, but has not yet received a formal referral, insiders told The Journal. At the same time, President Donald Trump hasn't decided whether he wants the DOJ to act on a referral once it comes, insiders told The Journal, adding that the case against Fauci isn't considered a high priority for Trump.

Stanley Brand, who represented Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro in their contempt proceedings, told The Journal that Paul's contempt referral would be vulnerable to dismissal even if the DOJ did pick it up.

"There's just a bevy of cases that say you can't just go around the Senate rules or the House rules when you put somebody in contempt," Brand said. "That referral is null and void."