Unearthed Emails Blow Hole In Fauci’s Claim That He Never Asked Staff To Delete Emails

Former White House Medical Advisor Anthony Fauci directed other federal officials to delete his emails, new documents indicate, contradicting his sworn testimony to Congress that he never instructed staff to evade federal recordkeeping law.

“Please delete this e-mail after you read it,” Fauci wrote to National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins when both men were still federal officials on Feb. 2, 2020, documents show. Longtime Fauci foil Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky published the emails on X Wednesday morning.

The Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs, which Paul chairs, has been investigating the origins of COVID for years.

Fauci did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The former White House adviser wrote this directive in an exchange involving Collins and then-Wellcome Trust Director Jeremy Farrar, the emails show. The public health officials — who altogether oversaw billions in biomedical research funding — were seeking to manage and contain public discussion about the potential origins of COVID-19 by involving the World Health Organization (WHO), other previously published emails demonstrate.

“I share your view that a swift convening of experts in a confidence inspiring framework (WHO seems really the only option) is needed, or the voices of conspiracy will quickly dominate, doing great potential harm to science and international harmony,” Collins wrote to Farrar, Fauci, and NIH official Lawrence Tabak on the morning of Feb. 2, 2020.

Fauci sent another email on Feb. 2, 2020 expressing a sense of urgency about dampening discussion of a possible lab origin and saw a WHO panel as the solution.

“Like all of us, I do not know how this evolved, but given the concerns of so many people and the threat of further distortions on social media, it is essential that we move quickly. Hopefully, we can get WHO to convene,” he wrote to Farrar.

Fauci had just one day earlier directed staff to investigate the connections between his longtime institute at the NIH, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a lab at the emerging pandemic’s epicenter.  ‘

In the new email shared by Paul, Fauci asks Collins to delete an email in which he describes WHO officials Mike Ryan and “Bernhard,” likely Bernhard Schwartländer, as moving too slowly.

“Mike and Bernhard are good people but they really slow things down, particularly Mike Ryan whose main concern is not offending anyone,” Fauci wrote.

The coverup began while the virus was barely on America’s radar. Just one day after the Feb. 1, 2020 Proximal Origins call, Fauci, Francis Collins, and Jeremy Farrar plotted how to “get ahead of the science and the narrative” under WHO.

Fauci ended with: “Please delete this… pic.twitter.com/lAVuPB8mZJ

— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) September 10, 2025

In 2024 testimony before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, Fauci answered no to the question of whether he was ever engaged in attempts to obstruct the Freedom of Information Act and the release of public documents.

In another email Paul published Wednesday, from April 2020, Fauci emailed his chief-of-staff Greg Folkers insulting Paul. He again asked his federal official colleague to subsequently delete the email.

“As usual he is full of s..t,” Fauci wrote in response to a criticism from Paul about the death rate in New York at that time. “I do not want to engage anymore with this nonsense,” he added before asking Collins to delete the note.

Freshly released emails expose another layer of the Fauci COVID Coverup. In April 2020, his staff flagged my post on NYC’s soaring death rate.

Fauci’s reply?

Call me “full of s..t,” spin the numbers, and order your staff to “delete this after you read it.” He knew the… pic.twitter.com/cGvFn4OzX3

— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) September 10, 2025

Questions have swirled about an apparent conspiracy within Fauci’s inner circle to conceal emails since 2023, when emails subpoenaed by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic revealed that Fauci’s senior scientific adviser, David Morens, had made efforts to evade the Freedom of Information Act in communications with EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak. Daszak collaborated closely with the Wuhan Institute of Virology on coronavirus engineering experiments and received funding from Fauci’s institute.

“I can either send stuff to Tony on his private email or hand it to him at work or at his house,” Morens emailed on April 21, 2021. “He is too smart to let colleagues send him stuff that could cause trouble.”

In congressional testimony, Morens described a communications hierarchy in Fauci’s office that he identified in one email as a “back channel.”

Fauci Sr. Advisor Dr. David Morens Describes the ‘Backchannel to Tony’

“Tony does not want me to connect anybody to him directly.” pic.twitter.com/FtGyhEf66N

— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) May 23, 2024

In his 2024 congressional testimony, Fauci distanced himself from Morens, his aide of nearly 20 years.

Folkers too came under scrutiny by the committee for apparent FOIA evasion when investigators obtained emails in which Folkers substituted random letters of terms related to the origins of COVID controversy with special characters. These changes could throw a wrench into a FOIA request for records related to these key terms.

FBI Director Kash Patel said on the Joe Rogan podcast in June that the bureau had obtained Fauci’s phone in its ongoing investigation related to the origins of COVID and that the bureau is working with Paul. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has also stated that her office is investigating the possibility of a Wuhan lab leak with U.S. connections.