Gabbard Releases Declassified Files Alleging Fauci Funded Wuhan GOF Research, Influenced COVID Origins Assessments, and Misled Congress

On her final day as Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard released a tranche of declassified documents and communications alleging that Anthony Fauci, as NIAID director, directed millions in U.S. taxpayer funds toward gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in collaboration with EcoHealth Alliance. The files include a May 27, 2020, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory assessment concluding that conditions for an accidental lab release of a human-adapted coronavirus were present at WIV in late 2019, assigning equal weight to lab-modification and natural-origin hypotheses. Documents also detail Fauci's participation in CIA- and NSC-related briefings on origins, including a June 2021 secure video conference, contradicting his 2024 congressional testimony where he denied involvement in such intelligence discussions. Gabbard stated the releases expose efforts by Fauci and politicized IC elements to suppress the lab-leak hypothesis and conceal U.S.-funded research links. The declassifications revive scrutiny of EcoHealth's NIH grant activities, including spike-protein and receptor-adaptation experiments in humanized mice, and align with prior concerns over the DEFUSE proposal. Official ODNI statements and contemporaneous reporting confirm the release occurred amid ongoing debates over pandemic origins and accountability.