Outgoing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard closed out her tenure Thursday by releasing a collection of documents that she says raise serious questions about Dr. Anthony Fauci’s role in shaping the government’s response to the debate over COVID-19’s origins.
In a video posted to X on her final day in office, Gabbard announced the release and argued that the records demonstrate Fauci’s involvement in both funding controversial coronavirus research and influencing intelligence assessments regarding where the pandemic began.
According to Gabbard, Fauci oversaw federal funding that supported gain-of-function research involving bat coronaviruses at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology.
She further alleged that Fauci was not merely a public-facing scientific adviser during the pandemic but also played a significant behind-the-scenes role in discussions involving the intelligence community.
Today, on my final day as Director of National Intelligence, I’m releasing never-before-seen communications and documents exposing how Dr. Fauci provided millions in US taxpayer dollars to fund dangerous gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab, worked with politicized elements… pic.twitter.com/ZMdliW4zyS
— DNI Tulsi Gabbard (@DNIGabbard) June 19, 2026
“Fauci was the behind-the-scenes advisor who, with his hand-picked experts, pushed the IC to endorse a natural, animal origin to hide his dangerous research,” Gabbard said in a statement accompanying the document release.
She also accused Fauci of promoting misinformation while discouraging competing viewpoints regarding the virus’s origins.
“Fauci became the nation’s pandemic ‘pundit’ and publicly pushed lies, disinformation, and censorship,” Gabbard stated.
A central focus of the release involves Fauci’s testimony before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic in 2024. Gabbard’s office argues that correspondence contained within the newly released records contradicts statements Fauci made under oath during that hearing.
According to the release, Fauci was asked multiple times whether he had communicated with agencies such as the FBI, CIA, DIA, or other intelligence organizations regarding viral research before, during, or after the pandemic. Gabbard’s office contends that Fauci denied having such involvement, stating, “not to my knowledge about COVID.”
The newly released materials, according to Gabbard, suggest otherwise.
The release also highlights allegations from whistleblowers who claim intelligence analysts faced professional consequences when they challenged conclusions favoring a natural origin theory. According to those accounts, dissenting views were marginalized, creating an environment where alternative assessments—including the lab leak hypothesis—received less consideration than they otherwise might have.
Gabbard’s office further alleges that a relatively small network of government-funded scientific experts exerted substantial influence over intelligence findings related to COVID’s origins. Those findings, in turn, were cited publicly to support arguments against the lab leak theory.
According to the release, intelligence officials frequently relied upon experts recommended by Fauci and often adopted conclusions that aligned with his views.
The debate over COVID’s origins remains one of the most contentious issues to emerge from the pandemic. While some intelligence agencies have assessed that a laboratory-related incident is the most likely explanation, others continue to support a natural-origin theory or maintain that the evidence remains inconclusive.
The document release is likely to intensify those debates, particularly given Gabbard’s allegation that critical information was withheld or suppressed during the government’s investigation into the pandemic’s beginnings.
