On Her Last Day as DNI, Gabbard Releases Documents Linking Fauci, Tax Dollars, and Wuhan

WASHINGTON — Outgoing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced Thursday that on her final day leading the U.S. intelligence community, she would declassify and release documents she described as "never-before-seen" materials linking former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, American taxpayer funding, and the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The announcement was first reported by Just the News.

Gabbard did not detail in public remarks the precise nature of the documents — whether they originated in NSA intercepts, CIA analysis, State Department cables, NIH internal correspondence, or a combination of intelligence sources. She also did not specify the classification levels being lifted or the particular funding mechanisms the documents are said to address.

What Gabbard said publicly is that the documents had not previously been available to the American people and that they establish a connection between Fauci, federal tax money, and Wuhan.

Background: The Fauci-Wuhan Funding Dispute

The question of whether U.S. government funds supported research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology that may have contributed to the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 has been at the center of congressional oversight and investigative reporting since 2021.

EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit organization, received grants from the National Institutes of Health — including through Fauci's NIAID — and subcontracted research with scientists at WIV. That research involved bat coronavirus studies. Congressional investigators and independent scientists have argued that some experiments conducted under the grant program met the functional definition of "gain-of-function" research — work designed to make pathogens more transmissible or virulent — despite NIH's position that the work did not qualify under the agency's formal regulatory definitions in effect at the time.

Fauci testified before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic in 2024. Under oath, he denied that NIH funded gain-of-function research at WIV and stated he had no knowledge of research conducted at the institute that violated U.S. funding restrictions.

The Intelligence Community's Prior Public Assessment

In 2023, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence — the office Gabbard later led — released a declassified assessment finding the intelligence community divided on COVID-19's origins. The FBI and Department of Energy assessed, with varying degrees of confidence, that a laboratory incident at WIV was the most likely explanation for the pandemic's origin. Four other agencies assessed natural spillover from animals to humans. The CIA declined to reach a conclusion either way.

No subsequent public intelligence assessment has resolved the question.

Gabbard's Record on Declassification

During her tenure as DNI, Gabbard oversaw several releases of previously restricted materials on topics including FBI conduct during political investigations and related matters involving the intelligence community's domestic activities. The Fauci-Wuhan release, if executed as described, would be among the most consequential declassification actions of her time in office.

Materials made public by a DNI under declassification authority generally cannot be reclassified without a subsequent executive order. A final-day release compresses any window for internal review or inter-agency challenge to the declassification decision.

What Comes Next

Congressional committees with jurisdiction over intelligence and public health policy — including the Senate Intelligence Committee and the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic — are expected to review the documents once they are public.

If the materials contain evidence that Fauci or other NIH officials provided congressional testimony that was materially incomplete or inaccurate, referrals to the Department of Justice for potential perjury investigation would be a likely next step for Republican committee leadership.

Whether the documents substantiate Gabbard's characterization — a direct, documentary link between Fauci, federal funding, and research at Wuhan — or provide additional context to a question that has remained open for five years, remains to be determined once the materials are reviewed.

As of publication, Fauci's representatives had not responded to a request for comment. The White House had not issued a statement regarding the release.