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September 9, 2025 Anthony Fauci, M.D. 37th and O Street, N. W. Washington D.C. 20057 Dear Dr. Fauci: The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs is continuing to conduct its investigation into the origins of COVID-19 and risky life sciences research. During the course of its investigation, the Committee has obtained records revealing that you directed employees of the National Institutes for Health (NIH) to destroy federal records. These documents suggest your direct involvement in efforts to conceal information related to the Committee’s investigation and appear to contradict your previous testimony before Congress. Accordingly, I request that you provide additional information and formally invite you to appear before the Committee to clarify your previous testimony. On June 3, 2024, when questioned by members of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, you unequivocally denied under oath ever deleting official records. Congressman Comer asked, “Dr. Fauci, did you ever delete an official record?” and you responded, “No.”1 Similarly, when Congresswoman Lesko asked, “Were you ever engaged in attempts to obstruct the Freedom of Information Act and the release of public documents?” you again responded, “No.”2 Additionally, when Congresswoman Malliotakis asked, “Did you delete any emails or records related to the Wuhan lab or the origins of the virus?” you answered, “No, I did not.”3 However, emails obtained by the Committee appear to contradict your testimony. For example, in an email dated February 2, 2020, you directed then-NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins to “Please delete this e-mail after you read it.”4 In another email dated July 20, 2020, to an NIH employee you stated, “I do not want to engage any more with this nonsense. And so, please delete this e-mail after you read it.”5 1 A Hearing with Dr. Anthony Fauci Before the H. Comm. On Oversight & Gov’t Reform, 118th Cong. 18 (2024) (statement of Anthony Fauci and answering questions from Rep. James Comer) (“Dr. Fauci, did you ever delete an official record?”). 2 A Hearing with Dr. Anthony Fauci Before the H. Comm. On Oversight & Gov’t Reform, 118th Cong. 30 (2024) (statement of Anthony Fauci and answering questions from Rep. Debbie Lesko) (“Dr. Fauci, were you ever engaged in attempts to obstruct the Freedom of Information Act and the release of public documents?”). 3 A Hearing with Dr. Anthony Fauci Before the H. Comm. On Oversight & Gov’t Reform, 118th Cong. 25 (2024) (statement of Anthony Fauci and answering questions from Rep. Nicole Malliotakis) (“Did you delete any emails or records related to the Wuhan lab or the origins of the virus?”). 4 E-mail from Anthony Fauci, Dir., Nat’l Inst. of Allergy & Infectious Diseases, to Francis S. Collins, Dir., Nat’l Insts. of Health (Feb. 2, 2020, at 02:15 PM). 5 E-mail from Anthony Fauci, Dir., Nat’l Inst. of Allergy & Infectious Diseases, to Greg Folkers, Chief of Staff, Nat’l Inst. of Allergy & Infectious Diseases (July 20, 2020, at 08:27 PM).
I have reason to believe that you may be in possession of additional records related to the Committee’s ongoing investigation. These records are necessary for the Committee to fully understand the federal government’s actions to identify the origins of COVID-19, and the extent to which taxpayer dollars were used to conduct risky virological research, as well as to weigh potential legislative reforms. For this reason, I request that you provide the following, in complete, original, and unredacted form, no later than 5:00 PM on September 23, 2025: 1. A list of all email addresses, phone numbers, and messaging application usernames you used at any point between January 1, 2018, and January 1, 2023. 2. All email communications, including attachments, sent or received by you between January 1, 2018, and January 1, 2023, whether on government-issued or personal accounts/devices, that refer or relate in any way to NIH, HHS, CIA, FBI, DOD, COVID-19, the “Proximal Origins” paper, the Wellcome Trust, Jeremy Farrar, the P3CO Review Group, gain-of-function research, dual use research of concern, EcoHealth Alliance, Peter Daszak, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Ian Lipkin, Ralph Baric, Zhengli Shi, the DEFUSE proposal, DARPA, DTRA, USAID PREDICT, the Rocky Mountain Laboratory, Vincent Munster, Fort Detrick, the Integrated Research Facility, the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), or the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC). 3. All email communications, including attachments, created, sent, received, copied, or otherwise transmitted between January 1, 2018, and January 1, 2023, whether on government-issued or personal accounts/devices, between or among you and Jeremy Farrar, Francis Collins, Hugh Auchincloss, Ian Lipkin, Ralph Baric, Vincent Munster, Kristian Andersen, Andrew Rambaut, Edward Holmes, or Robert Garry, including communications in which you appear in any field (to, from, cc, bcc) or in forwarded chains. 4. All records of calls and voicemails, whether on government-issued or personal devices/accounts, between January 1, 2018, and January 1, 2023, between you and Jeremy Farrar, Francis Collins, Hugh Auchincloss, Ian Lipkin, Ralph Baric, Vincent Munster, Kristian Andersen, Andrew Rambaut, Edward Holmes, Robert Garry, or Samantha Power, including call logs, voicemail transcripts, and audio recordings. 5. All text messages, iMessages, and communications conducted through encrypted or third-party messaging applications, including but not limited to Signal, WhatsApp, Telegram, and WeChat, sent or received by you between January 1, 2018, and January 1, 2023, whether on government-issued or personal accounts/devices, that refer or relate in any way to NIH, HHS, CIA, FBI, DOD, COVID-19, the “Proximal Origins” paper, the Wellcome Trust, Jeremy Farrar, the P3CO Review Group, gain-of-function research, dual use research of concern, EcoHealth Alliance, Peter Daszak, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Ian Lipkin, Ralph Baric, Zhengli Shi, the DEFUSE proposal, DARPA, DTRA, USAID PREDICT, the Rocky Mountain Laboratory, Vincent Munster, Fort Detrick, the Integrated Research Facility, the U.S. Army Medical Research
Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), or the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC). 6. All text messages, iMessages, and communications conducted through encrypted or third-party messaging applications, including but not limited to Signal, WhatsApp, Telegram, and WeChat, sent or received by you between January 1, 2018, and January 1, 2023, whether on government-issued or personal accounts/devices, between you and Jeremy Farrar, Francis Collins, Ian Lipkin, Ralph Baric, Vincent Munster, Kristian Andersen, Andrew Rambaut, Edward Holmes, Robert Garry, or Samantha Power. Additionally, please provide in writing no later than 5:00 PM on September 23, 2025, your availability to testify before the Committee on the following dates: • October 28-30, 2025 • November 4-6, 2025 • November 18-20, 2025 • December 2-4, 2025 • December 9-11, 2025 Thank you for your prompt attention to this important matter. Sincerely, Rand Paul, M.D. Chairman U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs