5 highlights from Tulsi Gabbard's release of Fauci, COVID-19 documents: 'Straight from the deep state playbook'
2. Fauci as 'behind-the-scenes advisor' shaping assessments against lab-leak theory
According to the ODNI release, Fauci and "politicized leaders within the [Intelligence Community] created a self-serving circular reporting loop" by which input from "hand-picked NIAID-funded scientists" was used to shape intelligence assessments. These assessments were then allegedly cited as a scientific consensus against the lab-leak theory.
"Fauci promoted a fraudulent paper, whose publication he helped prompt, as legitimate information for Intelligence Community consideration. Senior analysts praised Fauci not as a 'policymaker,' but as an unbiased guide to 'the real coronavirus experts' — while ignoring experts who might dissent from Fauci's narratives," ODNI said.
Citing "hundreds of reviewed emails," the ODNI said, "the intelligence community almost always incorporated Fauci's recommendations."
Documents reference Fauci's briefing with CIA officials on June 4, 2021, when he discussed experiments at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and expressed interest in specifics regarding pangolin samples from fall 2019. He also expressed concern that China's cleaning of the Huanan Seafood Market "may have made a serious epidemiological misstep that could have destroyed key clues."
Lawfare noted that the revelations in the documents regarding Fauci's alleged role in manipulating intelligence assessments was narrow, showing that he participated in a February 2020 meeting about assessing the origins of the virus, received an intelligence briefing in June 2021 on the origins, and recommended scientists the IC might consult.
