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Outgoing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released previously unseen communications and documents that she said contradict statements Dr. Anthony Fauci made in his 2024 testimony to Congress, when he denied engaging in any substantive communication with intelligence agencies about gain-of-function coronavirus research.
The documents, released late last week, include emails, press releases, whistleblower materials, grant reports, scientific papers and more. They contain allegations that Fauci directed funding for gain-of-function coronavirus research, influenced U.S. Intelligence Community assessments of COVID-19 and its origins, and worked with the intelligence officials to shape the community’s public-facing findings.
Gabbard released the documents in four parts.
The papers don’t prove the lab-leak hypothesis. However, they demonstrate that the voices of those who questioned the “natural origins” theory were systematically suppressed, according to Dr. Byram W. Bridle.
“Those who tied SARS-CoV-2 to the Wuhan laboratory ecosystem from the beginning are vindicated in pointing to a cover-up of the hypothesis, the conflicts, and the inquiry itself,” James Lyons-Weiler, Ph.D., wrote on Substack.
Richard Ebright, Ph.D., told The Defender that it is “absolutely clear there has been a concerted effort to cover up the lab origin of COVID and U.S. government involvement in the lab origin of COVID.”
He also said it is “absolutely clear that this coverup involved malfeasance by officials at NIAID, NIH, HHS, USAID, CIA, and ODNI up to and including former NIAID Director Fauci, former NIH Director Francis Collins, former HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, former USAID Director Samantha Power, and former Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines.”
Ebright said criminal prosecutions and other penalties should be considered.
“For Fauci — protected from arrest and prosecution by his autopen pardon — subpoenas, debarment and a clawback of federal pension and benefits should be priorities. For Fauci’s criminal associates — none of whom are protected by pardons — subpoenas, arrests, prosecutions, debarments and clawbacks of federal pensions and benefits should be priorities,” Ebright said.
Others were more skeptical of the document release. Sasha Latypova wrote on her Substack that much of the declassified material in the documents is highly redacted.
“The unredacted information has been in the public domain for years,” Latypova wrote. “Her actions are a publicity stunt, which appears to be in preparation for her presidential run in 2028.”
Mainstream media outlets largely ignored the news.
BREAKING: The three major U.S. broadcast networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC, have yet to report on DNI Tulsi Gabbard’s recent declassification regarding Anthony Fauci’s cover-up of the COVID-19 pandemic.
— Patrick Webb (@Patrickwebb) June 20, 2026
Instead, on Sunday, The Washington Post ran an 18,000-word hit piece on Gabbard, alleging she received direction from an “eccentric religious leader” during her time in Congress. The Post didn’t mention the release of the COVID-19 documents.
Children’s Health Defense (CHD) Senior Research Scientist Karl Jablonowski said mainstream media have an obligation to cover the story. “The seconds of silence that pass are the metric for which to judge their journalistic integrity.”
Fauci’s role in promoting the ‘natural origins’ hypothesis
Much of the documentation concerns the role of Fauci — who directed the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) from 1984 to 2022 — in promoting the “natural origins” COVID-19 hypothesis.
Part 1 of the documents shows that in June 2021, he met with key intelligence personnel for a 40-minute briefing on the virus’s origins. According to the documents, Fauci argued for a natural-origin explanation, selected evidence that supported that hypothesis to share with officials and told the intelligence officials which scientists they should consult.
“That is not passive receipt of intelligence,” Lyons-Weiler wrote. “It is participation in the evidentiary pathway: identifying publications, selecting experts, and supplying an interpretive frame.”
The documents also indicate that he and other government officials received assessments early on indicating that the possibility that the virus had leaked from a lab was a viable one.
For example, a largely redacted report from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Z Program concluded that “all of the necessary conditions for an accidental release of a laboratory-modified coronavirus — specifically a coronavirus adapted to recognize human cell receptors — were present at the Chinese Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in mid-to-late 2019.”
Emails in Part 2 also show government officials discussing the fact that the virus’ furin cleavage site is “consistent with a GOF modification.”
“To be honest — I cannot imagine the Chinese NOT doing this type of research,” one official wrote, while still noting they thought a lab leak would be “extraordinary.”
Hundreds of pages of emails show a pattern of government officials leaning toward dismissing the lab-leak theory as a conspiracy theory, a theory promoted by Fauci.
“They document a structurally conflicted inquiry,” Lyons-Weiler wrote. “Gabbard’s files show that the intelligence process was influenced by people and organizations whose grants, experiments, reputations, and public narratives were implicated in the question under review.”
The emails often reflect concerns about news articles, letters to government officials, and congressional testimonies that shared evidence about a possible lab leak.
The documents included a letter CHD sent to Congress and CHD’s press release.
Fauci oversaw funding for coronavirus research in Wuhan
Gabbard said Fauci oversaw funding that supported gain-of-function coronavirus research involving bat viruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Part 4 of the documents includes a series of grant reports. They show, for example, that the NIAID funded Peter Daszak, Ph.D., with $3,748,715 for bat coronavirus research in the six years leading up to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Gabbard’s press release frames this research as a likely contributor to the pandemic.
Earlier this month, Gabbard released another trove of declassified documents showing that the U.S. has funded over 120 biolabs in 30-plus countries.
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Whistleblower alleges Fauci provided false testimony to Congress
The documents also include a discussion of a 2021 whistleblower complaint alleging Fauci provided false testimony to Congress related to gain-of-function research at the National Institutes of Health.
The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) decided not to follow up on the complaint because Fauci was not technically a member of the intelligence community.
In the 2024 Congressional hearing, Fauci did not say that he never spoke to intelligence agencies — he said he had been briefed by them “once or twice.”
The newly released documents show that his engagement with the intelligence community was more substantive than he revealed, because he influenced what evidence its members used to make their evaluations, critics noted, according to ZeroHedge.
“These documents expose Fauci’s direct role in influencing and manipulating IC assessments on COVID-19, and how Fauci lied to Congress in 2024, when under oath he denied knowledge of or participation in discussions with intelligence officials about viral research,” Gabbard said.
The OIG also declined to refer the complaint to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) because the OIG said HHS was likely already aware of the allegations.
The documents also reportedly include whistleblower claims alleging that intelligence analysts who suggested COVID-19 may have leaked from a lab faced professional consequences.
Gabbard said those supporting the lab-leak hypothesis faced retaliation, marginalization and career setbacks. One contractor reportedly was terminated days after coming forward, and managers allegedly reminded analysts that leadership controlled promotions.
Gabbard has referred the claims to the Intelligence Community’s inspector general, according to the press release.
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