Tulsi Gabbard used her final day as director of national intelligence to drop a political grenade on Dr. Anthony Fauci, releasing newly declassified documents she says expose his role in shaping COVID-origin intelligence while concealing his own ties to risky virus research.
The outgoing intelligence chief said the 67 newly released records show Fauci had more influence over the COVID-origin probe than he acknowledged, including contacts with intelligence officials and discussions tied to Wuhan research funding.
Gabbard, who told President Donald Trump late last month that she was resigning to help her husband through an “extremely rare” cancer fight, framed the release as a final act of transparency.
“The COVID-19 pandemic caused tremendous hardship and pain for millions of our fellow Americans and for countless people around the world. After years of lies, censorship, and cover-ups, the American people deserve transparency, truth, and accountability,” Gabbard said in a statement.
One major thread in the release centers on “The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2,” the March 2020 paper that helped steer official thinking away from a lab-leak explanation.
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
Earlier FOIA records had already complicated the paper’s backstory, showing scientists privately wrestling with lab-origin concerns even as the public message hardened around a natural spillover.
Gabbard’s office said the newly released material goes further by showing how Fauci’s relationships inside the intelligence community allowed him to shape the government’s COVID-origin inquiry while avoiding scrutiny.
Federal records had already tied Fauci’s NIAID and USAID to $41 million in funding for EcoHealth Alliance-linked coronavirus experiments through a subcontractor.
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Gabbard accused Fauci of helping direct U.S. taxpayer money into dangerous research while maintaining influence over the very intelligence assessments that could have exposed questions about that funding.
“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,” Gabbard said in a Thursday night video.
She said the intelligence community “almost always incorporated Fauci’s recommendations.”
A July 2021 exchange highlighted in the release shows investigators weighing Fauci’s suggested outside experts.
“Dr. Fauci recommended that the IC reach out to the below individuals,” the email said, apparently referring to authors of a paper that pushed the natural-origin explanation.
The next day, an unnamed intelligence official defended following Fauci’s lead.
“In this particular case, given Dr Fauci’s background we absolutely would like to follow-up on his outreach suggestions. In this case he’s not a policymaker … he’s a [Subject Matter Expert] with a wealth of knowledge about current and historical research who probably knows better than most who the real Coronavirus experts are.”
Another record places Fauci in a June 4, 2021 meeting with the CIA’s Weapons and Counterproliferation Mission Center on the origins question.
Gabbard says Fauci used that meeting to steer officials toward natural-origin advocates.
Publicly, Fauci promoted the spillover theory and boosted the Proximal Origin paper.
A 2024 congressional report later suggested Fauci had “prompted” the paper to help discredit the lab-leak theory.
Gabbard argued the records collide with Fauci’s 2024 testimony about his intelligence-community contacts.
“I can’t give you the specifics of it,” Fauci said at the time before turning to discussions involving anthrax.
Gabbard claimed the correspondence tells a different story.
“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. It’s time you know the truth,” Gabbard said.
The release also revived whistleblower claims that dissenting analysts paid a professional price for challenging the official origin line.
“The correspondence I’m releasing today directly contradicts his sworn testimony,” Gabbard said, “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 release immediately drew praise from Sen. Rand Paul, one of Fauci’s fiercest critics, who has repeatedly accused the former NIAID chief of misleading Congress.
My investigations exposed NIH funding for risky research overseas and uncovered a pattern of evasion and secrecy.
The American people deserve full transparency about COVID’s origins and who knew what, when. Accountability should not have an expiration date.
Thank you to… https://t.co/LDOVsD8Yev
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) June 19, 2026
“This release includes additional documents revealing the truth about the lab-leak origins and Fauci’s lies to Congress under oath. I’ve referred Fauci to the DOJ MULTIPLE times for criminal prosecution over his web of lies. Thank you, Director Gabbard,” Paul said. “More to come.”
The political stakes around any potential Fauci case may already be limited.
Any prosecution tied to Fauci’s 2021 gain-of-function testimony may already face a timing problem after the relevant statute of limitations apparently ran out last month.
Biden had also moved before leaving office to shield Fauci with a blanket pardon.
