Tulsi Gabbard Releases Declassified Information On 120 Foreign Biolabs Funded By US Taxpayers

Outgoing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released declassified information Friday detailing U.S. taxpayer funding for more than 120 biological laboratories across more than 30 foreign countries.

Gabbard said the disclosure is part of a broader effort to increase transparency surrounding overseas biological research and to identify facilities conducting potentially dangerous pathogen studies.

“Despite the obvious potential for catastrophic global impact research on dangerous pathogens in biolabs can have, 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,” Gabbard said.

“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,” she added.

According to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the review was conducted pursuant to an executive order signed by President Donald Trump targeting so-called gain-of-function research, which can increase the transmissibility or capabilities of viruses and other pathogens.

ODNI stated that many of the facilities funded by the U.S. government have conducted research involving highly contagious and potentially dangerous pathogens.

“Many of these U.S. government-funded biolabs are currently or have previously engaged in research using hazardous and highly contagious pathogens, in some cases to include dangerous Gain-of-Function research, with very little visibility or oversight,” the agency said.

The declassified materials indicate that roughly one-third of the laboratories identified are located in Ukraine.

According to the documents, pathogens stored or studied at some facilities included anthrax, tularemia, tuberculosis, swine fever, Newcastle disease, MERS, SARS, Marburg virus, Ebola, Lassa fever, plague and rickettsia.

Some of those biological materials reportedly date back to the Soviet era, when Ukraine inherited laboratories and pathogen collections from the former Soviet Union.

The records indicate that four of the laboratories alone received more than $9 million in taxpayer funding.

The work was overseen through the Defense Department’s Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, which has historically focused on preventing biological weapons proliferation and improving biosecurity safeguards.

Critics of the release disputed suggestions that the laboratories were secret or that their existence had been concealed.

Josh Segal, a biological weapons expert who has participated in U.S. arms control efforts, argued that the facilities have long been publicly known.

“I am really confused as to why the DNI released something giving new life to a misleading narrative the entire intel community has known for decades to be a Russian trope and that the Trump administration worked hard to crush in its first term,” Segal said.

“Their labs are not now and were never secret, and do zero questionable work,” he added.

The debate over Ukrainian biological research facilities first gained widespread attention in 2022 after testimony from former State Department official Victoria Nuland acknowledged that Ukraine maintained biological research facilities and expressed concern about Russian forces gaining access to them during the war.

The newly released files also indicate that biological research partnerships involved multiple U.S. agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Agriculture and the World Health Organization.

The declassified materials do not identify the other countries involved in the broader network of more than 120 laboratories.

Earlier in his second term, Trump signed an executive order restricting federal funding for gain-of-function research in countries such as China and Iran that the administration believes lack sufficient oversight safeguards.

Gabbard is expected to leave her post on June 19 after announcing she would step down to help care for her husband during treatment for a rare form of bone cancer.