Former President Joe Biden’s administration took steps that kept a whistleblower complaint accusing Anthony Fauci of lying to Congress from going to an independent watchdog, according to documents declassified by now-former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
Just the News reported that the documents showed Avril Haines, who served as Biden’s director of national intelligence before Gabbard, handled the 2021 complaint in a way critics are calling unusual. Instead of sending the allegation to the Department of Health and Human Services’ independent inspector general, Haines directed it to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, a Biden appointee.
The complaint centered on Fauci’s testimony to Congress about gain-of-function research and whether the National Institutes of Health had funded such research connected to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.
Tamara Johnson, who was then the acting Intelligence Community inspector general, supported the decision not to refer the complaint to the HHS inspector general.
“The general dispute about ‘gain-of-function’ research is already in the public domain making it highly probable that the HHS-OIG would already be aware of the allegation that the Dr. Fauci’s testimony was inaccurate (albeit from a different source, not our ICWPA submitter). Consequently, we determined there would be no merit in referring the matter to HHS OIG,” Johnson wrote.
In the same email, Johnson summarized the whistleblower’s claim.
“The complaint alleges Dr. 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,’” she wrote.
That means two Biden administration officials agreed not to send the complaint to the independent watchdog normally positioned to review allegations involving HHS.
The complaint reportedly reached Haines not long after a June 2021 meeting involving Fauci and the CIA. According to Just the News, Fauci discussed evidence that workers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology had become sick in the fall of 2019. That detail has long been viewed as significant by those who believe COVID-19 may have originated from a lab leak.
The report also said Fauci’s office had funded risky research involving bat viruses at the Wuhan facility, making the meeting and the whistleblower complaint especially sensitive.
The declassified documents have renewed scrutiny from Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who has repeatedly accused Fauci of misleading Congress and the public about U.S.-funded research in Wuhan.
“Declassified documents confirm what I’ve been saying for years: Anthony Fauci didn’t just fund dangerous research at the Wuhan lab. He personally shaped what the intelligence community told the American people about COVID’s origins. 18 agencies relied on his guidance. That’s the very definition of a cover-up,” Paul wrote Monday on X.
Paul also tied the controversy to the now-defunct United States Agency for International Development, saying U.S. taxpayer money flowed through USAID and NIH to fund gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
“Here is what we know: U.S. taxpayer money, funneled through USAID and NIH, funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. That research likely caused the COVID pandemic that killed millions and cost trillions. Dr. Fauci personally signed off on these experiments, then lied to Congress about it. Biden tried to protect him with a last-minute pardon. That’s the very definition of a cover-up,” Paul wrote.
Paul also announced Monday that he had subpoenaed Fauci to testify before the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
Biden issued Fauci a pardon shortly before leaving office in January 2025, a move that drew criticism from Republicans and others who said it raised more questions about Fauci’s role in the federal government’s handling of the pandemic.