President Donald Trump’s administration has released documents accusing Anthony Fauci, former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), of funding Wuhan Lab research that sparked the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tulsi Gabbard, the outgoing U.S. director of National Intelligence, in a statement on Friday, said, “Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Anthony Fauci, as head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), provided millions in US taxpayer dollars to fund dangerous gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV)—work which is now widely viewed as the source of the unintentional lab leak that sparked the pandemic.”

She added, “Today, National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is releasing never-before-seen communications and documents exposing how Fauci worked with politicised 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.”

According to her, the materials released on Friday are the result of DNI’s yearlong declassification review. During this process, ODNI officials gathered testimony from multiple IC whistleblowers who reported retaliation for challenging the IC’s manipulation of intelligence on the virus’ origins, Ms Gabbard said.

She claimed that Mr Fauci’s close IC relationships enabled him to assume three key roles during the pandemic, shielding him from scrutiny as he wielded outsized influence, and alleged that Mr Fauci funded risky coronavirus research linked to big pharmaceuticals and the pursuit of “universal vaccines” worth trillions of dollars.

According to Ms Gabbard, the documents directly contradict Mr Fauci’s 2024 testimony to the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Mr Fauci or his attorneys have yet to comment on the allegations. The COVID-19 virus, which emerged from a Wuhan lab in 2019, became a global pandemic, resulting in lockdowns worldwide.

A report by the WHO stated that over three million people were killed by the virus across the globe in 2020.