Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has launched a sweeping investigation into more than 120 foreign biological laboratories funded over the years with American taxpayer dollars, escalating the Trump administration’s crackdown on risky pathogen research tied to the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gabbard told The Post on Monday that the intelligence community is now reviewing U.S.-funded biolabs operating across more than 30 countries as part of President Trump’s executive order targeting so-called “gain-of-function” research — experiments that intentionally alter viruses to study how they become more transmissible or deadly.
“We are going to identify where these labs are, what pathogens they contain and what ‘research’ is being conducted to end dangerous gain-of-function research that threatens the health and wellbeing of the American people and the world,” Gabbard said.
“The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the catastrophic global impact research on dangerous pathogens in biolabs can have,” she added.
Gabbard also accused public health officials and members of the Biden administration of misleading Americans about the extent of U.S. involvement in overseas biolab activity.
“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 these U.S.-funded and supported biolabs and threatened those who attempted to expose the truth,” she said.
Under the new directive, intelligence agencies will examine all U.S.-funded biological research facilities abroad, including labs engaged in gain-of-function studies as well as facilities conducting defensive research on dangerous pathogens.
Officials with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said many of the labs under review were financed through the Defense Department’s Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, originally created after the Cold War to help secure and dismantle weapons of mass destruction infrastructure in former Soviet territories.
More than 40 of the laboratories reportedly operate in Ukraine, where officials now warn facilities may face security risks due to the ongoing war with Russia.
The labs were designed to study infectious diseases, improve biosecurity, and prevent future outbreaks. But critics have long argued the complex web of grants, subcontractors, and international partnerships surrounding the programs created weak oversight and limited transparency.
ODNI officials said some current clinical research being conducted at the facilities raises “significant ethical, financial and security concerns.”
The issue became politically explosive in 2022 after Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland acknowledged during congressional testimony that Ukraine possessed biological research facilities the United States was concerned could fall into Russian hands following Moscow’s invasion.
The Biden administration later denied claims that the U.S. operated biological or chemical weapons laboratories in Ukraine, calling such accusations Russian and Chinese propaganda.
Trump administration officials now argue those denials were part of a broader effort to shape public perception and minimize attention surrounding American involvement with overseas biological research programs.
The renewed scrutiny also revives longstanding debate surrounding the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.
Between 2014 and 2021, U.S.-funded coronavirus research conducted through EcoHealth Alliance at the Wuhan lab was later found by the National Institutes of Health to have violated grant conditions after experiments reportedly increased viral infectivity dramatically.
Federal officials have continued denying that the research directly caused the COVID-19 pandemic, though the lab-leak theory has steadily gained legitimacy in intelligence and scientific circles.
Last year, President Trump signed an executive order prohibiting federal funding for gain-of-function research in countries such as China and Iran that lack sufficient oversight protections.
The Defense Department’s own inspector general previously acknowledged investigators were unable to fully determine how many enhanced potential pandemic pathogens had been studied overseas despite more than $1.4 billion in related federal spending between 2014 and 2023.
