Tulsi Gabbard releases declassified documents alleging Fauci influenced Covid origin assessments

Washington: Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released a trove of newly declassified documents that she said show former top US infectious disease official Anthony Fauci influenced intelligence assessments on the origins of Covid-19 and later denied such contacts under oath before Congress.

The release by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) marks a major escalation in the Trump administration’s efforts to revisit the origins of the pandemic and examine the role played by US government agencies, scientists and intelligence officials during the global health crisis.

According to Gabbard, the newly released communications and documents reveal how Fauci, while serving as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), interacted with intelligence officials as debates intensified over whether the virus emerged naturally or from a laboratory in Wuhan, China.

“The COVID-19 pandemic caused tremendous hardship and pain for millions of our fellow Americans and for countless people around the world,” Gabbard said. “After years of lies, censorship, and cover ups, the American people deserve transparency, truth, and accountability.”

She alleged that “politicised self-serving leaders like Dr. Fauci covered up their own wrongdoing and abuses of power, manipulated intelligence, lied to Congress, and undermined a duly elected President by restricting his access to vital facts needed to keep the country safe.”

Noting that it carried out a year-long declassification review under President Donald Trump’s transparency directive, ODNI said it gathered testimony from intelligence community whistleblowers who alleged retaliation for challenging official assessments on the virus’s origins.

Fauci had a relationship with intelligence officials that enabled him to play a significant role in discussions about Covid-19 origins, the ODNI claimed. Fauci provided recommendations on experts consulted by intelligence agencies and helped shape assessments that were later presented publicly as scientific consensus, it alleged.

One July 2021 intelligence community email stated that officials wanted to follow up on Fauci’s suggestions because he was viewed as “a SME with a wealth of knowledge about current and historical research who probably knows better than most who the real Coronavirus experts are.”

Among other things, the documents shows that intelligence officials discussing outreach to scientists recommended by Fauci during the Biden administration’s 90-day review of Covid-19 origins in 2021. Internal correspondence described him as a subject matter expert whose recommendations were considered valuable to the review process.

Fauci’s, in his 2024 testimony before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic denied knowledge of discussions with intelligence agencies concerning viral research. The documents show multiple interactions involving intelligence officials and Covid-origin inquiries, the report said.

Among the declassified material is an August 2021 communication from the Intelligence Community Inspector General’s office referring to a whistleblower complaint alleging that Fauci provided “false testimony to Congress related to the conduct of gain of function research at the National Institutes of Health, thereby ‘misleading the American people and Congressional oversight.’”

Some governmental communications at that time dismissed claims that the virus was engineered, while others examined laboratory accident scenarios and the capabilities of the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

A May 2020 assessment prepared by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory concluded that conditions were present in Wuhan for the “accidental release of a laboratory-modified coronavirus” and placed “equal weight” on laboratory and natural-origin hypotheses.

The ODNI release also includes whistleblower allegations that intelligence analysts who supported the lab-leak hypothesis faced professional retaliation, were marginalised or discouraged from expressing dissenting views. Gabbard said several of those complaints have been referred to the Intelligence Community Inspector General for further review.

The origins of Covid-19 remain one of the most contentious issues of the pandemic. US intelligence agencies have long been divided, with some assessments favouring a natural spillover from animals and others viewing a laboratory-related incident as the more likely explanation.

–IANS