(NewsNation) — A copy of Dr. Anthony Fauci's pandemic-era cellphone was handed over to a key investigative panel to uncover more records about Fauci's handling of the pandemic and the origin of the COVID-19 virus. 

Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson told NewsNation on Friday there are more than 34,000 text messages on Fauci's COVID-era cellphone; the Senate investigations subcommittee chaired by Johnson now has a copy of them.

He added there were also more than 500 voicemail messages, dating from about 2014 up to a few days before Fauci left the National Institutes of Health in December 2022.

"I can't and my staff can't guarantee that everything was preserved. What is odd is most of those text messages are associated with a phone number. He only had three contacts, which is pretty odd," Johnson said.

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Investigators are searching for evidence of deleted files and private communications that contradict what Fauci said publicly. A copy of the phone was transferred from the Department of Health and Human Services to the Senate subcommittee. 

"This is not going to be a document dump," Johnson said. "I also need to preserve documents for our investigation. We are interviewing other people that he may be texting. And if you're going to get truthful answers out of people, you can't necessarily show them all your all your investigatory material, as well. 

"So, again, I'm not going to hold this close to the vest when there are things that the public needs to see. I'm hoping to work very closely with Senator Rand Paul and his staff and release these things jointly.

The Senate Panel for Security and Governmental Affairs voted 8-5 to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress on Thursday after he repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment during a hearing. 

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Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., referred the matter to the Justice Department, arguing Fauci's prior pardon by former President Joe Biden raises questions about whether Fauci could properly invoke that protection. 

"I certainly think he should be on contempt of Congress charges, but mainly because not only did he show contempt for Congress, for our committee, for our investigation, he's shown utter contempt for the American public," Johnson told "Katie Pavlich Tonight."

" I think Anthony Fauci does face legal jeopardy in a number of different areas. But from my standpoint, the most important part of accountability is exposure, exposing who Anthony Fauci is, what he did. Let's face it, he was the primary director of our miserably failed response to COVID," Johnson said.

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