Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced Friday that her office uncovered evidence of long-standing U.S. government funding for more than 120 biological laboratories spread across over 30 countries, and accused previous officials, including Anthony Fauci and members of the Biden administration's national security team, of deliberately hiding that fact from the public.
The disclosure, which Gabbard said followed months of searching through intelligence community holdings and files, represents the most specific accounting yet of the scope of American-funded biological research facilities overseas. It also puts a number, 120-plus labs, 30-plus nations, on a question that Washington spent years dismissing as conspiracy theory.
Gabbard did not hold back about who she holds responsible for the information gap. As Breitbart reported, the intelligence chief directly named Fauci and Biden-era national security officials as parties who misled the American people about the labs' existence and went after anyone who raised the subject.
In her statement, Gabbard laid out the core finding plainly:
"After months of searching through intelligence community holdings and files, today I'm releasing new evidence of long-standing U.S. government funding of more than 120 biolabs in over 30 countries."
She said some of those laboratories conducted research involving hazardous and highly contagious pathogens. Others, she added, engaged in gain-of-function research, the practice of deliberately enhancing a pathogen's transmissibility or lethality, ostensibly for scientific purposes, but with obvious dual-use risks.
Gabbard then turned to the cover-up. She stated that evidence about the labs' full existence and funding had been "knowingly withheld from the American people." And she went further:
"The information surrounding the existence, history, locations and funding of these US funded biolabs has been intentionally covered up by powerful people falsely, claiming that they do not exist and accusing anyone who says otherwise to be foreign assets and traitors to America."
That last line carries weight. During the early stages of Russia's war in Ukraine, questions about U.S.-linked biological research facilities in that country became politically radioactive. Officials who raised the issue were tagged as doing the Kremlin's bidding. Gabbard herself was a frequent target of that accusation.
Gabbard reserved her sharpest criticism for specific actors. She named Fauci by title and accused him, alongside politicians and Biden administration national security officials, of outright dishonesty:
"Politicians, so-called health professionals like Dr. Fauci, and entities within the Biden administration's national security team lied to the American people about the existence of U.S.-funded and supported biolabs, and threatened those who attempted to expose the truth."
That is a serious charge from the sitting Director of National Intelligence, not a cable-news commentator, not a backbench lawmaker, but the person with access to the full breadth of American intelligence holdings. Gabbard did not identify which specific Biden-era officials she was referring to beyond Fauci, nor did she detail the nature of the alleged threats against those who tried to raise the alarm.
But the accusation itself reframes a debate that dominated Washington for years. The question is no longer whether the labs exist. Gabbard says ODNI has the receipts. The question now is why the American public was kept in the dark, and by whom, specifically.
Among the more than 30 countries hosting U.S.-funded labs, Ukraine drew particular attention. Previous intelligence assessments, referenced in Gabbard's disclosure, determined that at least one U.S.-funded laboratory in Ukraine likely housed dangerous pathogens and remained susceptible to Russian attack, seizure, or accidental damage during the ongoing conflict.
That finding alone should have prompted urgent public transparency. Instead, the subject was treated as disinformation for years. Officials who questioned the presence of U.S.-supported biological research facilities in an active war zone were met with derision, not answers.
The wartime vulnerability is not theoretical. A lab holding hazardous pathogens in a country under bombardment presents an obvious risk, to Ukrainian civilians, to neighboring populations, and to global public health. The fact that intelligence agencies assessed this risk and the information still did not reach the public in any meaningful way raises hard questions about institutional accountability.
Gabbard's announcement did not arrive in a vacuum. President Donald Trump has already signed an executive order ending federal funding for gain-of-function research worldwide. That order, published through the White House, represents the most direct federal action yet against the kind of research Gabbard described as threatening "the health and wellbeing of the American people and people around the world."
Gabbard said ODNI has also recently directed intelligence agencies to increase monitoring and information collection related to overseas biological laboratories. The goal, she stated, is to build a complete picture of where these labs are, what pathogens they contain, and what research they conduct.
"ODNI will continue to work closely with partners across the government to identify where these labs are, what pathogens they contain to end dangerous Gain-of-Function research that threatens the health and wellbeing of the American people and people around the world."
That pledge, to identify, catalog, and shut down dangerous research, is the operational follow-through that the Trump executive order set in motion. Gabbard's ODNI is now the enforcement arm for a policy that previous administrations refused to pursue.
Several critical questions remain unanswered. Gabbard did not release a full list of the 120-plus laboratories or the 30-plus countries involved. She did not identify which specific pathogens were housed at the facilities. She did not name the specific Biden administration national security officials she accused of lying. And she did not detail the "clinical trials and research activities" that raised ethical, financial, and national security concerns, a reference in the broader disclosure that lacks granular specifics.
Those gaps matter. The public deserves to know exactly which facilities received taxpayer dollars, what work was done inside them, and who authorized the funding. Gabbard has opened the door. The full inventory still needs to walk through it.
But the gaps do not diminish the core revelation. For years, Americans were told that U.S.-funded biolabs overseas were a fiction, a talking point for foreign adversaries. Anyone who pressed the issue was accused of spreading disinformation or acting as a foreign agent. Gabbard's own experience with those accusations gives her disclosure a particular edge.
Now the nation's top intelligence official says the labs are real, there are more than 120 of them, they span the globe, some handled dangerous pathogens, and the previous administration's officials knew about them and lied.
The ODNI's stated plan to continue identifying lab locations and pathogens suggests that Friday's announcement was a first installment, not a final report. If Gabbard's office follows through, the American public may eventually see a comprehensive accounting of where their tax dollars went, what biological agents were involved, and what risks were created, or concealed.
Congress should not wait for that report to arrive on its own schedule. The intelligence committees have every reason to demand full briefings, unredacted documentation, and sworn testimony from officials who oversaw or concealed the programs. If the previous administration's national security team did, in fact, suppress information about taxpayer-funded labs handling dangerous pathogens, that is not a policy disagreement. It is a breach of public trust that demands a formal accounting.
The pattern is familiar by now. Officials fund risky research overseas, beyond the reach of domestic oversight. When questions arise, they deny, deflect, and smear the questioners. When the truth finally surfaces, they have moved on to private-sector positions and book deals, insulated from consequence.
Americans paid for 120-plus labs in 30-plus countries. They were told those labs didn't exist. The people who said otherwise were called traitors. That sequence of events has a name, and it isn't "misinformation", it's a cover-up that the people who orchestrated it have yet to answer for.
