SouthernWorldwide.com – In her final actions as Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard has brought attention to Dr. Anthony Fauci’s involvement in the government’s review of COVID-19 origins. This comes as a contentious succession battle unfolds for her position.
While much of the information released is not entirely new, Gabbard’s move highlights her intention to leave a legacy focused on questions surrounding Fauci, the origins of COVID-19, and federal funding for virus research during her tenure atop the U.S. intelligence community.
As Gabbard made her final significant statement, Bill Pulte is poised to take over the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). Pulte has faced bipartisan criticism for his lack of experience in intelligence matters. Meanwhile, President Trump’s permanent nominee for the role remains in a holding pattern.
Jay Clayton, an attorney and former SEC chairman nominated by Trump to permanently lead ODNI, has experienced delays in his confirmation process. The President indicated he was holding up the nomination to pressure Congress into passing a voter identification measure.
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Pulte, a construction businessman and housing official, previously served as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). His time at the FHFA drew controversy due to allegations that he used his authority to target political opponents of President Trump. These claims have amplified concerns among key senators regarding his potential to weaponize the intelligence community on behalf of the president during his interim role.
“We don’t need a weaponized DNI, we need professionals there,” stated Senate Majority Leader Sen. John Thune, referring to Pulte. Other prominent Republican senators, including Cornyn, Cassidy, Murkowski, Collins, and Tillis, have also expressed opposition or reservations about Pulte assuming leadership of ODNI.
Senate Democrats share many of these concerns with their Republican counterparts.
Senators Elizabeth Warren, Dick Durbin, Sheldon Whitehouse, Richard Blumenthal, Gary Peters, Adam Schiff, Mark Warner, and Ron Wyden have all voiced worries that Pulte might misuse America’s intelligence apparatus against Trump’s adversaries. Similar to many Republicans, they have also pointed to his lack of intelligence experience as a significant issue.
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Political analysts suggest that Clayton would likely face less opposition in the Senate for his confirmation. However, the Senate has so far been unwilling to advance the president’s voter identification legislation, creating a hurdle for Clayton’s advancement and setting the stage for a potential confrontation between the White House and Congress.
While lawmakers and the president engage in discussions about the future of ODNI, Gabbard has used her departure to draw attention to the Fauci documents.
The documents released on Thursday evening contain some information that was already publicly known, alongside other details that do not appear to have been previously reported.
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Gabbard’s release includes newly declassified documents revealing that intelligence officials considered, but ultimately rejected, Fauci as an external reviewer for their COVID-19 origins assessment. They cited concerns that he would be perceived as having a conflict of interest.
In a separate exchange, intelligence officials tasked with analyzing the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic debated whether to follow Fauci’s recommendations for interviews relevant to their study.
“For those who don’t know me, I’m the [REDACTED] and, as such, leading the [intelligence community’s] 90-day POTUS COVID origin study,” one official wrote in an email. “Per below, Dr Fauci recommended that the IC reach out to the below individuals who were coauthors of the attached paper as part of the study.”
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Another official questioned the prudence of the intelligence community relying on the advice of a “policymaker” like Fauci for its internal investigations, particularly given the “various strong views on the subject and statements regarding their own conclusions.”
An intelligence official responded by arguing that Fauci should not be classified as a policymaker in this context but rather as a crucial subject-matter expert.
“In this particular case, given Dr Fauci’s background we absolutely would like to follow-up on his outreach suggestions,” they wrote. “In this case he’s not a policymaker….he’s a SME with a wealth of knowledge about current and historical research who probably knows better than most who the real Coronavirus experts are.”
A CIA whistleblower had previously alleged that Fauci exerted undue influence over the intelligence community’s assessment of COVID-19’s origins. Gabbard’s recent release aims to amplify these claims.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, conservatives asserted that Fauci and other public health officials minimized or diverted scrutiny away from the lab-leak theory, despite U.S. financial ties to coronavirus research in Wuhan, the disease’s origin point. Gabbard has presented her collection of documents as an insight into how the intelligence community integrated information from individuals like Fauci during its investigation into the virus’ origins.
“Fauci worked with politicized career leadership in the Intelligence Community (IC) to suppress 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,” states the ODNI’s press release accompanying the documents. “These documents expose Fauci’s direct role in influencing and manipulating IC assessments on COVID-19, and how Fauci lied to Congress in 2024, when under oath he denied knowledge of or participation in discussions with intelligence officials about viral research.”
