Just hours before leaving office, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released a trove of declassified documents throwing fresh scrutiny on Dr. Anthony Fauci’s role in gain-of-function research at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology – as well as his efforts to hide that research and dismiss the lab leak origin theory.
The June 18 release from Gabbard’s office includes internal emails, briefing notes, intelligence community correspondence, and related materials. It reignites debate over whether the virus emerged naturally or resulted from a lab leak—and whether Fauci directed American taxpayer dollars to risky research that may have contributed to a global pandemic that claimed millions of lives.
During the pandemic, the media and medical establishments held up Fauci, then the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as the unquestioned authority on COVID-19. As the virus spread worldwide, he quickly became the official spokesperson for “The Science.”
Fauci concurrently led the charge in branding anyone who suggested that the virus could have leaked from a Chinese lab as a “conspiracy theorist” – while also working to obscure his own ties to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Subsequent revelations, however, have appeared to confirm that Fauci knew about U.S.-funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (which intentionally makes pathogens more transmissible or deadly). Fauci also allegedly shut down discussion of the “lab leak hypothesis” despite receiving evidence that the virus which causes COVID-19 could have escaped from the infamous Wuhan lab.
The documents released by Gabbard further support these findings, showing that Fauci directed taxpayer dollars toward gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute. The release also alleges that Fauci influenced intelligence assessments, worked with officials to downplay the lab-leak theory, and provided testimony to Congress that appears inconsistent with the records.
Key documents reveal that Fauci’s role in stifling the lab leak theory was more involved than his public statements indicated and raise legitimate questions about transparency and accountability.
One declassified email from 2023 (Part 2 of the release) describes a June 4, 2021, secure video teleconference involving Fauci, CIA officials, and National Security Council staff. The roughly 40-minute briefing covered China’s dangerous viral research, reports of early illnesses at the Wuhan Institute, viral evolution theories, and China’s initial epidemiological mistakes.
Fauci reportedly recommended specific U.S. scientists to the intelligence community to look into the lab leak theory. This conflicts with Fauci’s later congressional testimony, where he stated under oath that he did not recall discussions with U.S. intelligence agencies about gain-of-function research related to COVID-19.
Additional emails show intelligence officials actively following Dr. Fauci’s “recommendations” during the Biden administration’s 90-day COVID origins review. “In this particular case, given Dr. Fauci’s background, we absolutely would like to follow up on his outreach suggestions,” one government official wrote, adding that Fauci was “not a policymaker” but a subject-matter expert with “a wealth of knowledge” who likely knew “who the real Coronavirus experts are.”
In another July 2021 thread, however, officials explicitly noted potential conflicts of interest. As intelligence officials discussed potential outside reviewers for a COVID origins assessment, one wrote, “Not Fauci; in addition to being a customer, he’ll be seen by many as having a conflict of interest.”
These details matter to American taxpayers. Billions in federal research dollars flow through agencies like the NIAID with little oversight, especially when that money is sent overseas. Fauci repeatedly denied that the NIAID or the NIH funded gain-of-function research at Wuhan. Yet the documents reference whistleblower complaints alleging that intelligence reporting contradicted Fauci’s testimony on the matter.
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) and others have long pressed for clarity on these U.S.-based funding streams for foreign labs. Paul pressed Fauci on that point during a 2021 Senate hearing, accusing him of shifting the definition of gain-of-function research after denying that the NIH funded such work in Wuhan.
The newly released documents show intelligence officials were aware of a whistleblower complaint alleging that intelligence reporting contradicted Fauci’s testimony. In Part 3 of the release, an August 2021 email said the complaint alleged “intelligence reporting contradicting Dr. Fauci’s testimony to the Congress” that no gain-of-function research occurred, or was paid for by NIH, at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The email also noted disagreement over what constitutes gain-of-function research. But the existence of disagreement makes the early certainty from public health officials and their media allies that the virus did not escape from a lab look worse, not better.
For years, Americans were discouraged from asking tough questions. As Jonathan Turley wrote in the New York Post, the media and government treated anyone who raised questions about a possible lab leak as a “conspiracy theorist or racist or racist conspiracy theorist.”
Government officials leaned on social media platforms to flag and remove content that ran counter to the official narrative as “misinformation,” while the legacy media often treated lab-leak inquiries as politically motivated or fringe. Facebook, for example, initially banned claims that COVID-19 was man-made or lab-related before reversing course in 2021.
The response to COVID-19 should be remembered as a textbook example of how powerful government bureaucracies and aligned institutions can shape—and suppress—narratives to protect their own interests. Gabbard may no longer be the Director of National Intelligence, but her commitment to transparency to the very end ensured that Americans are one step closer to the truth.
Sarah Katherine Sisk is a proud Hillsdale College alumna and a master’s student in economics at George Mason University. You can follow her on X @SKSisk76.
