On Her Way Out the Door, Gabbard Declassified a Trove of Fauci and COVID-Origin Files.

In her final days as Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard (R) — a former Democratic congresswoman who joined the GOP in 2024 — released a tranche of declassified documents on June 18, 2026, that she says expose former White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci’s role in funding research at the Wuhan lab and in shaping the U.S. government’s handling of COVID-19’s origins. The ODNI release is bluntly titled “Fauci Funded Wuhan Lab Research That Sparked COVID.”

That headline is Gabbard’s characterization, and it is the most important thing to flag up front. These are her office’s allegations, drawn from documents that outside experts and congressional bodies have not yet independently verified. The U.S. intelligence community has never reached a consensus on whether COVID-19 emerged from a lab or from nature, and Fauci — who has denied wrongdoing and holds a January 2025 presidential pardon — has called such accusations “preposterous.”

One more correction to the framing: Gabbard is not leaving in a power struggle. She announced in May that she would resign, effective June 30, to care for her husband, who was diagnosed with a rare bone cancer; her deputy, Aaron Lukas, becomes acting DNI. This page documents what she released, what it actually alleges, and the caveats a careful reader needs to weigh it.

• June 18, 2026 — ODNI published the declassified COVID-19/Fauci document tranche, stamped 'declassified by DNI Gabbard' · Source: ODNI (dni.gov)
• Allegation, not finding — the documents are Gabbard's/ODNI's characterization and have not been independently verified by outside experts or Congress · Source: Newsweek
• No consensus — U.S. intelligence agencies remain split and have never officially concluded whether COVID had a lab or natural origin
• Pardoned Jan. 2025 — Fauci holds a preemptive presidential pardon from President Biden (D) and has not been charged; he denies wrongdoing
• Resigned, not ousted — Gabbard's departure (effective June 30) is to care for her husband's cancer, not a Trump clash; Aaron Lukas becomes acting DNI · Source: NPR; Roll Call

ODNI posted the materials — multiple PDF parts on dni.gov, stamped “declassified by DNI Gabbard on 18 June 2026” — alongside a press release. Gabbard described the tranche as the product of a yearlong declassification review under President Trump (R)’s transparency directive, containing internal communications, intelligence-review material, and whistleblower allegations. She said she had referred the whistleblower accounts to the Intelligence Community Inspector General.

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By Gabbard’s account, the documents show that Fauci “provided millions in US taxpayer dollars to fund dangerous gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab,” worked with “politicized” figures in the intelligence community to suppress the lab-leak hypothesis, and “lied to Congress while under oath in 2024.” She laid it out in her own announcement:

“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.”

Tulsi Gabbard · Director of National Intelligence · @DNIGabbard · June 18, 2026

This is where credibility is won or lost, so the qualifiers are not optional. The documents are ODNI’s characterization; Newsweek and others note they “have not yet been independently verified in full by outside experts or congressional bodies.” The intelligence community itself has never officially concluded how the pandemic began — agencies are split, several at low confidence. And Fauci, who testified in June 2024 that he had no knowledge of intelligence-community discussions of viral research, called the lying accusations “preposterous” and received a preemptive pardon from President Biden (D) in January 2025 (which Biden stressed was not an admission of guilt).

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Some coverage framed the timing as part of a “succession fight.” The record is more human than that. Gabbard announced on May 22 that she would step down, effective June 30, to be with her husband through a rare bone-cancer diagnosis — “I cannot in good conscience ask him to face this fight alone,” she said — and Trump praised her on the way out. There is no confirmed confirmation battle over her replacement: her principal deputy, Aaron Lukas, a career intelligence officer, simply becomes acting DNI. The “final act” is the drama of a high-profile declassification on the way out the door, not a palace coup.

A departing intelligence chief declassifying a politically explosive trove on her final days is real news, and the underlying questions — what U.S. money funded in Wuhan, and what the government knew and when — are legitimate and long-running. But a press release is not a verdict. The documents are Gabbard’s office’s account, unverified by outside review; the intelligence community has not concluded the origin question; and the man at the center holds a pardon and denies it all. The honest posture is the one this page takes: report exactly what was alleged, by whom, and flag everything that has not yet been proven. Readers can decide what to make of it.

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Last updated June 18, 2026