Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard talks to reporters in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on July 23, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)
By Johnathan Jones June 19, 2026 at 4:30am
Outgoing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released a trove of documents Thursday night that she said proved Dr. Anthony Fauci suppressed the COVID lab leak theory and later lied to Congress about it.
On her final day on the job, Gabbard posted a video on X announcing the release.
She said that Fauci “provided millions in U.S. taxpayer dollars to fund dangerous gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”
According to a press release shared by Gabbard, documents prove Fauci worked closely with intelligence officials during COVID while publicly playing the role of an independent scientific voice.
Per Gabbard, Fauci played a central role in shaping intelligence assessments about the origins of COVID.
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
Do you think Anthony Fauci should be charged with a crime?
“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,” she said in the release.
She added, “Fauci became the nation’s pandemic ‘pundit’ and publicly pushed lies, disinformation, and censorship.”
In her press release, Gabbard also said that Fauci lied to Congress and tried to retaliate against voices who did not buy the official lines about the virus:
The correspondence released today directly contradicts Fauci’s 2024 testimony to the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.
In that hearing, while under oath, Fauci was repeatedly asked whether he spoke to “FBI, CIA, DIA or any U.S. intelligence agency concerning viral research” before, during, or after the pandemic. Fauci repeatedly dodged the questions, before falsely stating, “not to my knowledge about COVID.”
Testimony from multiple whistleblowers reveals intelligence analysts who challenged Fauci’s COVID-origin conclusions faced threat of retaliation, were marginalized, and often suffered career setbacks. This silenced dissent and fostered a culture where truth was sacrificed to conformity and credible evidence was buried.
According to Gabbard’s office, Fauci also helped create a system in which the same small group of government-backed scientists repeatedly influenced intelligence findings about COVID’s origins.
Those findings were then used publicly to argue against the lab leak theory.
The release claimed intelligence officials routinely accepted Fauci’s recommendations and relied on experts who agreed with him.
You can read the trove of documents here.
Former President Joe Biden issued a preemptive pardon to Fauci the day before he left office.
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