The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted Thursday morning in favor of recommending Dr. Anthony Fauci, who led the federal government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic response, be held in contempt of Congress.

The vote follows Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases during the pandemic, invoking the Fifth Amendment, which protects people from self-incrimination, over 100 times during a committee hearing last week on the pandemic response and the origins of the virus.

The committee vote Thursday is expected to initiate a process that would result in the Justice Department considering whether to charge him with a crime.

However, the process – or the possibility – of the DOJ taking up the matter is complicated by President Biden, before leaving office, giving Fauci a preemptive pardon for any crimes he might have committed dating back to 2014.