Tulsi Gabbard’s DNI Releases Fauci Files, Reviving Calls for Criminal Prosecution

“Dr. Fauci provided millions in US 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,” said Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.

Last week, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) published a host of never-before-seen documents alleging that former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Dr. Anthony Fauci misled Congress to cover up the origins of the COVID-19 virus.

Specifically, DNI Director Tulsi Gabbard’s office accused Dr. Fauci of “[suppressing] the truth about his actions, the virus’ lab-leak origins, and his role in directing U.S. funding for this dangerous research that caused immeasurable harm and countless lost lives” as well as “influencing and manipulating IC assessments on COVID-19,” and lying to Congress under oath. 

The latter refers to Dr. Fauci’s June 2024 testimony before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, during which he denied knowledge or participation in discussions with intelligence officials about gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Today, it is largely believed that SARS-CoV-2—which is the specific virus responsible for COVID-19—originated at this Wuhan lab. Fauci has long held to his belief that this theory is "preposterous."

“Now, after years of lies and censorship and coverups, the American people deserve transparency, truth, and accountability,” Gabbard said in a video posted to X. “Politicized self-serving leaders like Dr. Fauci covered up their own wrongdoing and abuses of power, manipulated intelligence, lied to Congress, and undermined the duly-elected President by restricting his access to the vital facts he needed to keep the country safe. It’s time you knew the truth.”

If you hadn’t heard about this new trove of over 200 pages of communications—themselves containing emails, reports, and intelligence assessments—you are certainly not alone. Yesterday, Fox News writer Ian Miller accused the legacy media of deliberately ignoring the story due to their alleged favoritism of Fauci and a desire to save face.

“These organizations claim to be bastions of journalism, Defenders of Democracy, and heroes in the fight for truth in government. Yet there's no investigation, no follow up, no acknowledgement that they were used to spread this ‘disinformation and censorship,’” said Miller. “Fauci was essentially handed unlimited power by the media, and politicians and organizations who listened were heavily influenced as a result.”

“The damage he caused with mask mandates, vaccine passports, school closures, and business restrictions may have been avoided or lessened,” he continued. “Instead, he was treated as an infallible saint. Quite literally worshiped by some extreme members of society.”

Given his role at NIAID, Fauci was widely viewed as the face of the nation’s COVID-19 response. During the pandemic, Fauci urged strict adherence to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines and was a leading proponent of the now-infamous “two weeks to flatten the curve.” 

Later, he conceded several points regarding the scientific backing of many of these recommendations. 

Among these, he acknowledged to Congress that the widely enforced 6-foot “social distancing” recommendation "sort of just appeared" and was largely an empirical decision rather than one based on concrete scientific data. 

This extends to the masking of children. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, admitted during testimony that he did not specifically recall reviewing any scientific studies supporting the masking of children in schools for almost two years before those policies were implemented.

“The real effect of social distancing—which Fauci basically admitted Monday and in January's testimony was just an educated guess on how to deter COVID-19—devastated America's economy, small businesses and families. It interrupted the fabric of American life. For what?” asked USA Today’s Nicole Russell at the time.

Beyond the economic impact Russell describes, over 1.2 million deaths have been attributed to COVID-19. On a statewide basis, there does not seem to be any correlation between adherence to Fauci’s recommendations and a reduced death rate. In fact, many of the states with the worst death rates relative to population size were those that remained in lockdown the longest.

For that reason, Fauci has no shortage of critics—outside the mainstream media as they may be. One prominent voice among them is former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, who in the wake of the DNI release called for Fauci to be prosecuted for perjury.

“The declassified documents prove he committed perjury,” said General Flynn. “In this Nation, no one stands above the law. If we do not prosecute him, we declare that the powerful are immune from justice.”

But there is perhaps no critic more animated than U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), who submitted a criminal referral to then-Attorney Pam Bondi earlier this year and has been publicly advocating for Fauci’s prosecution since at least 2023. During an appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience in early 2026, Sen. Paul expressed frustration with the Trump administration for not taking action.

Though President Trump has called Fauci’s work a "disaster,” he has refrained from pursuing criminal prosecution. Though he hasn’t confirmed it directly, his excuse seems to be that his hands have been tied ever since Fauci was preemptively pardoned by former President Joe Biden—or, perhaps more accurately, “an autopen operated by White House staff—without clear evidence of President Biden’s direct authorization.”

“If [President Biden] didn’t authorize this pardon personally, then the Department [of Homeland Security and Government Affairs] has a duty to investigate and prosecute as it would any ordinary citizen,” said Sen. Paul, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. “Fauci has been sainted by the extremist Left, but it doesn’t erase his lying before Congress.”

Sen. Paul led a meeting of the aforementioned committee last March which featured testimony from a CIA whistleblower who alleged that Fauci used the weight of his station to influence the intelligence community to accept a “wet market” countertheory. This includes putting scientists in oversight positions in place with this explicit aim—to, in the words of DNI Director Gabbard, “endorse a natural, animal origin to hide his dangerous research” while also “allegedly [setting up] roadblocks for whistleblowers, removing anonymity from the complaint process by insisting managers or attorneys be present at ODNI meetings, [and] creating an atmosphere of intimidation.”

Not one single Democrat attended that meeting. 

“[Fauci] helped fund the Wuhan lab. He supported and funded gain-of-function research, and then he tried to cover it up, and then he worked to cover it up from the American people," said Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO). "I hope he’s indicted.”