Federal government gets sued for hiding pre-COVID gain-of-function funding
A government watchdog organization has sued federal officials for hiding information about funding for dangerous gain-of-function research projects in the years leading up to the COVID-19 China virus pandemic that killed thousands and thousands around the globe.
It is Judicial Watch that has announced the action following a failure on the part of the U.S. Department of Defense, now Department of War, to produce records “on funding proposals submitted to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Biological Technologies Office” before the pandemic.
COVID-19, a virus that threatened the health of people around the world and killed many, now is considered by experts to have come out of a Wuhan, China, lab where research projects deliberately were looking at how to make some pathogens more of a threat.
That “gain-of-function” research focused on bat viruses, and WorldNetDaily has reported that an investigation was launched into Anthony Fauci and funding for gain-of-function projects.
Authorities are trying to document the connection between government funding for the EcoHealth Alliance and that group’s subsequent funding of gain-of-function work at Wuhan, and then Fauci’s actions and comments about such funding. His claims have been that the U.S. never funded any such work.
BREAKING: In a bombshell development, DNI Tulsi Gabbard has confirmed an investigation into Anthony Fauci for perjury and his role in funding gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, as part of efforts to uncover the origins of COVID-19. pic.twitter.com/BOVXcy1vAZ
— TRUMP ARMY (@TRUMP_ARMY_) August 14, 2025
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, in an interview, said the work is focusing on gain-of-function research, at Wuhan, and if and how it was U.S.-funded.
“We are working on that,” Gabbard said, in a transcript by the Independent Sentinel.
The report said, “Dr. Anthony Fauci used tax dollars to indirectly fund the Wuhan lab’s gain of function research. He is under investigation for perjury, for lying about it. The evidence is smoking gun level. However, he was pardoned by Joe Biden Autopen as Joe was going out the White House door. But there is some question if that is legal.”
DNI Tulsi Gabbard is investigating Dr. Fauci for potentially PERJURING himself during hearings with Rand Paul.
She’s hoping to PROVE Fauci knowingly funded the gain-of-function research in Wuhan which resulted in COVID-19. pic.twitter.com/nYKK10VHVf
— Derrick Evans (@DerrickEvans4WV) May 3, 2025
Judicial Watch said it had asked for access to “All biodefense and gain-of-function (GoF) funding proposals submitted to the DARPA Biological Technologies Office (BTO) prior to December 2019.”
That office was launched in 2014.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee also, back in 2024, said it was seeking information on various government plans, such as the DEFUSE project, a 2018 grant proposal led by EcoHealth and Wuhan.
“The DEFUSE project was submitted to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) under the PREventing Emerging Pathogenic Threats (PREEMPT) program and proposed to insert a furin cleavage site into a coronavirus to create a novel chimeric virus that would have been shockingly similar to the COVID-19 virus,” Judicial Watch explained.
At the time, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said, “[A]t least 15 federal agencies knew from the beginning of the pandemic that EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan Institute of Virology were seeking federal funding in 2018 to create a virus genetically very similar if not identical to COVID-19.”
Judicial Watch chief Tom Fitton said, “Gain-of-function proposals likely were active in the Defense Department’s pipeline prior to the pandemic. Our lawsuit intends to find out what these proposals entailed.”
‘We are working on that’: Fauci under investigation for allegedly lying about funding Wuhan lab
Autopen bombshell: N.Y. Times confirms Biden did not sign off on all pardons – including Fauci!