Anthony Fauci reportedly became defensive and bristled when the CIA briefed him on undisclosed coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, according to a diary entry dated June 4, 2021. Fauci wrote that the manner of questioning by one CIA briefer almost felt like a grilling, prompting him to jokingly ask if he should have a lawyer present.

Fauci's diary offers what is described as the clearest insight yet into classified CIA intelligence regarding the origins of COVID-19. The intelligence reportedly revealed that the Wuhan lab was experimenting with coronaviruses sampled from pangolins—animals known to harbor viruses closely related to COVID-19.

Virologists had first hypothesized pangolins as a possible source of COVID-19 in early 2020 after South China Agricultural University announced it had isolated a pangolin coronavirus from Guangdong Province with 99% similarity to the novel coronavirus.

Alina Chan, author of "VIRAL: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19," told the Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF) that the path for a pangolin virus to emerge in Wuhan is clearer now and is linked to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). She added that the wet market in Wuhan did not sell live pangolins, based on a pre-pandemic study.

The Daily Caller News Foundation previously reported that the U.S. collected signals intelligence (SIGINT) in 2019 from Chinese Communist Party leaders communicating between Beijing and Wuhan.

Despite a 2023 law mandating disclosure and efforts by former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to declassify the intelligence, the CIA has resisted releasing it, according to whistleblower Jim Erdman.

Fauci also met with Beth Cameron, senior director for intelligence programs at the National Security Council, on June 7, 2021, shortly after the CIA briefing.

Most recently, Fauci appeared before Senator Rand Paul's Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee on Wednesday, July 29, 2026, where he invoked the Fifth Amendment.

Sources