FBI, Prosecutors Probe 8 Scientists in Covid Origins Inquiry, Including Fauci
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Sep 5
FBI, Prosecutors Probe 8 Scientists in Covid Origins Inquiry, Including Fauci
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Sep 5
Summary
At least eight scientists — including Anthony Fauci, a Nobel laureate and former government researchers — have become subjects of an FBI and Justice Department evidence-gathering effort tied to Covid-19 origins.
Dan Bongino, then the FBI's No. 2 official, pushed the inquiry in early 2025 after demanding to know why a yearslong origins investigation had stalled and why government scientists had not been scrutinized more aggressively.
The effort grew out of internal clashes over the lab-leak theory and allegations that U.S. researchers helped conceal it; one heated headquarters meeting ended with Bongino ordering a skeptical official out of the room.
Although Bongino left the FBI in January to return to podcasting, the investigation he helped set in motion has continued, signaling sustained Trump-era pressure to revisit scientists' roles in the pandemic's origins debate.