Newly declassified documents released by Sen. Rand Paul are drawing renewed attention to the federal government’s handling of intelligence related to the origins of COVID-19, particularly the role played by Dr. Anthony Fauci during the Biden administration’s 2021 review of the evidence.
The records, released Thursday, provide a detailed look at interactions between Fauci, then-director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and senior White House officials during President Joe Biden’s 90-day intelligence review into the pandemic’s origins.
The review was ordered in spring 2021 after questions persisted about whether COVID-19 emerged naturally or was connected to research conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. The issue carried enormous political and scientific implications because the Wuhan lab had collaborated with organizations that received U.S. government funding, including grants linked to Fauci’s agency.
For nearly 20 years, Dr. Anthony Fauci was wired into America’s intelligence and defense apparatus.
Newly released documents from our investigation show how that access let him shape the COVID-19 origins debate — across science, the IC, and the public.
🧵 READ MORE:… pic.twitter.com/gCv1AQmnXx— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) June 11, 2026
At the center of the newly released documents is correspondence involving Beth Cameron, a biodefense expert serving on Biden’s National Security Council.
In a June 21, 2021 email, Cameron invited Fauci to participate in a classified briefing at the White House with Maher Bitar, then a senior intelligence official.
“I would like to invite you to sit with us directly,” Cameron wrote. “We and Maher stand ready to assist and appreciate greatly your time and leadership.”
The documents indicate that Fauci received multiple classified briefings from senior intelligence officials during the review process.
The release comes as Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard continues efforts to declassify additional records related to COVID-19’s origins. It also follows reports that Paul intends to conduct a transcribed interview with Fauci concerning the matter.
One of the most notable documents involves a report written by Marine Corps officer Joseph Murphy while working with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA.
In an August 2021 memorandum, Murphy described discovering a previously overlooked grant proposal known as “DEFUSE.” According to the report, EcoHealth Alliance had proposed research involving the engineering of novel coronaviruses with features that critics argue resemble aspects later seen in SARS-CoV-2.
Murphy wrote that he found the proposal in an unmarked DARPA folder and claimed it raised significant questions about the origins of the virus.
EcoHealth Alliance, led at the time by Peter Daszak, had received federal funding and collaborated with researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The organization has consistently disputed allegations that its work led to the pandemic.
The documents also revisit one of the most debated scientific papers of the pandemic era: the March 2020 Nature Medicine article known as “The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2.”
That paper concluded that the virus was not a laboratory construct or deliberately manipulated. It became one of the most influential scientific publications shaping early public understanding of COVID’s origins and was frequently cited in media coverage dismissing the lab-leak theory.
However, the newly released records include correspondence suggesting that Fauci and then-NIH Director Francis Collins had input into discussions surrounding the paper.
In one email, Collins reportedly wrote that he and Fauci helped with the publication but were “appropriately not mentioned explicitly.”
The issue remains controversial because Fauci testified before Congress in 2024 that he did not influence the paper’s conclusions.
The document release also includes a 2003 CIA assessment examining the future of biological threats. That report highlighted the growing importance of scientific experts in gathering information about emerging biological risks and suggested closer cooperation between researchers and the national security community.
