Tulsi Gabbard releases declassified documents alleging Fauci lied to Congress, steered intelligence agencies from lab leak theory

On her final day as Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard released hundreds of pages of previously undisclosed documents that she says expose how Dr. Anthony Fauci used his influence within the intelligence community to suppress the COVID-19 lab leak theory, directed millions in U.S. taxpayer dollars to gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and lied under oath to Congress about all of it.

The June 19 document release, published to the ODNI website, represents one of the most significant official accusations ever leveled against the former NIAID director, and it came not from a congressional committee or a cable news pundit but from the nation's top intelligence official, acting in her formal capacity before walking out the door.

Gabbard did not hold back. In a statement accompanying the release, she accused Fauci of working hand-in-glove with politicized career leaders inside the intelligence community to bury the truth about the pandemic's origins, and about his own role in funding the research that may have started it.

"Today, on my final day as Director of National Intelligence, I'm releasing never before seen communications and documents that expose exactly how Fauci worked with politicized career leadership in the intelligence community to suppress the truth about his actions, the virus's lab leak origins, and his role in directing U.S. funding for this dangerous research that caused immeasurable harm and countless lost lives."

That is not an allegation from a backbench senator or a social media personality. It is a formal claim from the outgoing head of the U.S. intelligence apparatus, backed by documents she says contradict Fauci's sworn testimony.

What the documents allegedly show

The released materials, described by Gabbard's office as "never before seen communications and documents," target Fauci on three fronts: his role in directing U.S. funding for gain-of-function research, his alleged manipulation of intelligence community assessments on COVID-19 origins, and his testimony before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic in 2024.

Gabbard alleges the correspondence directly contradicts Fauci's sworn statements. During his 2024 appearance before the subcommittee, Fauci denied knowledge of or participation in discussions with intelligence officials about viral research. Gabbard says the documents prove otherwise.

Newsmax reported that the declassified materials show Fauci met with CIA personnel on June 4, 2021, a specific encounter that, if verified, would flatly contradict his congressional denial. The Washington Examiner reported that the documents also reveal Fauci provided a list of virologists to intelligence personnel in June 2021, including researchers with ties to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Gabbard further alleged that Fauci pressed the intelligence community to adopt a "natural" animal origin narrative for the virus, a framing that would conveniently deflect attention from the Wuhan lab and from the gain-of-function research his agency helped fund. She also referenced a "fraudulent" paper Fauci allegedly pushed, though the specific paper was not named in her public statements.

Whistleblowers and retaliation

Perhaps the most troubling thread in Gabbard's allegations involves the intelligence analysts who tried to push back. She stated that her office received testimony from multiple whistleblowers who reported that analysts supporting the lab leak theory faced professional consequences for doing so.

"The correspondence I'm releasing today directly contradicts his sworn testimony, and we received statements from multiple whistleblowers revealing that the intelligence analysts who dared to challenge Dr. Fauci's COVID origin conclusions faced threats of retaliation, marginalization, and many suffered career setbacks."

The whistleblower angle is not new, but its confirmation by a sitting DNI carries institutional weight. One whistleblower reportedly came forward as early as August 2021, alleging Fauci had lied under oath before the Senate HELP Committee about gain-of-function research, the Washington Examiner noted.

The pattern Gabbard described, analysts silenced, conclusions steered, dissenters punished, is the kind of institutional corruption that erodes public trust in the intelligence community far more effectively than any foreign adversary could. During her tenure, Gabbard's ODNI also sent criminal referrals to the Justice Department targeting other intelligence community figures, suggesting a broader effort to hold insiders accountable.

A broader pattern of disclosure

The Fauci documents were not Gabbard's only act of declassification before leaving office. A week earlier, on June 12, she released declassified information revealing that U.S. taxpayers had funded more than 120 biological laboratories in over 30 foreign countries. The New York Post reported that roughly one-third of those labs were located in Ukraine, where dangerous pathogens including anthrax, Ebola, Marburg, and plague had been stored.

An ODNI press release accompanying that earlier disclosure stated that "many of these U.S. government-funded biolabs are currently or have previously engaged in research using hazardous and highly contagious pathogens, in some cases to include dangerous Gain-of-Function research, with very little visibility or oversight."

Gabbard tied the biolabs disclosure directly to Fauci and his allies. "Politicians, so-called health professionals like Dr. Fauci, and entities within the Biden administration's national security team lied to the American people about the existence of U.S.-funded and supported biolabs, and threatened those who attempted to expose the truth," she said at the time. The investigation was conducted pursuant to a President Trump executive order targeting gain-of-function research.

The question of politicized intelligence is hardly confined to COVID-19. Concerns about officials weaponizing the intelligence and justice apparatus for political ends have been a recurring theme, as other recent debates over DOJ politicization have illustrated.

Fauci's legal exposure, and Biden's pardon

The allegations against Fauci are not appearing in a legal vacuum. In July 2023, Senator Rand Paul referred Fauci to the Department of Justice for prosecution for allegedly lying to Congress about gain-of-function research funding. No charges resulted from that referral.

Complicating any future prosecution, Newsmax noted that Fauci received a preemptive pardon from President Biden before Biden left office. President Trump has declared that pardon null and void, arguing Biden was mentally diminished when he authorized it. The legal validity of that declaration remains untested in court.

Gabbard herself did not announce criminal charges or a formal DOJ referral as part of her final-day release. Her actions were framed as a transparency measure, getting the documents into public view and letting the record speak. But her language left little doubt about her view of what the record shows.

"Politicized, self-serving leaders like Dr. Fauci covered up their own wrongdoing and abuses of power, manipulated intelligence, lied to Congress, and undermined a duly elected president by restricting his access to the vital facts he needed to keep the country safe."

That last clause, "undermined a duly elected president by restricting his access to the vital facts he needed", points to a dimension of the scandal that has received less attention. If intelligence community leaders shaped the information reaching the president to protect their own interests, the implications extend well beyond public health policy.

Gabbard's departure

Gabbard left the DNI post to care for her husband, who is battling what she described as an "extremely rare" form of cancer. President Trump tapped housing regulator Bill Pulte as acting intelligence chief to replace her, and later confirmed Pulte would serve only temporarily in the role.

Her exit was personal, not political. But the timing of the document release, on her very last day, carried an unmistakable message: this was unfinished business she refused to leave buried in a classified vault.

Fox News confirmed that Gabbard declassified hundreds of documents in her final act, and that federal action against EcoHealth Alliance, the nonprofit that served as an intermediary for U.S. funding to the Wuhan lab, further underscored the real-world consequences of her disclosure efforts. A former EcoHealth Alliance leader dismissed the revelations as a "nothing burger," though the sheer volume of declassified material and the specificity of the allegations suggest the matter is far from settled.

What remains unanswered

For all the force of Gabbard's accusations, significant questions remain. The specific grant mechanisms, dollar amounts, and funding pathways alleged to have channeled taxpayer money to Wuhan have not been detailed in public reporting on the release. The "fraudulent" paper Gabbard referenced has not been identified by title or authors. The whistleblowers remain unnamed.

Most critically, Dr. Fauci has not publicly responded to the allegations or the released documents. His silence, or his eventual response, will matter. If the documents say what Gabbard claims they say, the gap between Fauci's 2024 sworn testimony and the documentary record should be provable on paper.

And if that gap exists, the American people are owed more than transparency. They are owed consequences.

Millions of Americans lost jobs, businesses, loved ones, and years of their children's education during the pandemic. They were told to trust the science and follow the experts. If the expert at the center of it all was lying to Congress while steering intelligence agencies away from the truth, no preemptive pardon should be enough to close the book.