“Dr. Fauci, as head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, provided millions in US taxpayer dollars to fund dangerous gain-of-function research.”
Outgoing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has declassified never-before-seen documents highlighting alleged lies and misinformation pushed by former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci while he became the top US health official during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Gabbard posted a video statement to X, saying that Fauci lied, pushed misinformation, and led an organizational intimidation campaign against whistleblowers who tried to speak out on information that indicated Covid-19 had come from a lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.
“Dr. Fauci, as head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, provided millions in US taxpayer dollars to fund dangerous gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which is now widely viewed as the source of the unintentional lab leak that sparks the pandemic,” Gabbard said.
https://twitter.com/DNIGabbard/status/2067792184753938484?s=20
She said the documents showed 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 US funding for this dangerous research that caused immeasurable harm and countless lost lives,” Gabbard said in the readout of her findings.
“Dr. Fauci became the nation's pandemic pundit, and he publicly pushed lies, disinformation, and censorship using every platform available. Now, according to hundreds of reviewed emails, which are included in this release, the intelligence community almost always incorporated Fauci's recommendations.
She said the documents “expose Fauci's direct role in influencing and manipulating IC assessments on Covid-19 and how Fauci lied to Congress in 2024 when under oath he denied knowledge of or participation in discussions with intelligence officials about viral research,” she added.
Gabbard said that there were reports about multiple whistleblowers “who reported retaliation for challenging the intelligence community's manipulation of intelligence on the virus's origins” from higher-ups reported to Fauci, who, Gabbard said, had become a “behind-the-scenes advisor” that had “hand-picked” people in the intelligence community to push the narrative that there were natural origins to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Gabbard alleged that these actions were designed to “hide his dangerous gain-of-function research that he funded using taxpayer dollars. All of this in a deliberate attempt to cover up the truth and shift the blame and attention away from Fauci's own actions.”
“Fauci didn't stop there. He blatantly lied to Congress under oath during his 2024 testimony to the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, denying that he ever spoke to any intelligence agency about Covid. 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,” Gabbard added.
Gabbard gave the example of a contractor being terminated after coming forward to the ODNI as a whistleblower. Managers in the intelligence community said that if anyone were to be advocating for the lab leak theory, leadership still determines who gets promotions.
“Senior leaders also sought to undermine whistleblowers by removing anonymity, which is required in the whistleblower process, as they made their complaints, and also insisting that their managers or attorneys be present during ODI meetings,” Gabbard added.
Documents released included a report from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory that concluded, “We assess that all the necessary conditions for an accidental release of a laboratory-modified coronavirus—specifically a coronavirus adapted to recognize human cell receptors—were present in the Chinese Wuhan Institute of Virology in mid-to-late 2019."
Libby’s Desk
Commentary and must-reads from Libby’s desk, straight to your inbox.
TPM Newsletter
The Post Millennial’s top stories, delivered to your inbox.
