5 highlights from Tulsi Gabbard's release of Fauci, COVID-19 documents: 'Straight from the deep state playbook'
1. Fauci's funding of research at Wuhan Institute of Virology
Framing the disclosure as advancing transparency under President Donald Trump's mandate, Gabbard alleged in a social media video posted June 18 that Fauci funneled significant amounts of U.S. taxpayer money to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) through grants.
Gabbard touted "never-before-seen communications and documents exposing how Dr. Fauci provided millions in U.S. taxpayer dollars to fund dangerous gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab, worked with politicized elements within the Intelligence Community to suppress the truth about his actions and hide the virus' lab-leak origins, and lied to Congress while under oath in 2024."
"The tactics used to hide the truth are straight from the deep state playbook," she added.
The ODNI summary report asserts that before the pandemic, Fauci, as NIAID director, provided millions in U.S. funds for "dangerous gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses at the WIV — work which is now widely viewed as the source of the unintentional lab leak that sparked the pandemic."
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
"Gain-of-function" research aims to render pathogens more infectious and lethal, federal funding for which is restricted in the United States. The U.S. government first restricted federal funding for gain-of-function research in 2014, when the Obama administration instituted an official funding moratorium.
Documents released by Gabbard reference National Institutes of Health and EcoHealth Alliance grants to the WIV, which have previously been reported as approximately $600,000 between 2014 and 2019 for bat coronavirus research.
Released materials cite a 2012 mBio letter written by Fauci discussing gain-of-function risks: "an important gain-of-function experiment involving a virus with serious pandemic potential is performed in a well-regulated, world-class laboratory… what if that scientist becomes infected with the virus, which leads to an outbreak and ultimately triggers a pandemic?"
Scientists and regulators dispute the precise definition of "gain-of-function," and the NIH has maintained the funded work didn't meet the paused research criteria at the time.
