In early 2025, Dan Bongino, then deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, convened a meeting at the bureau’s Washington headquarters to address concerns over a slow-moving investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic. Bongino, a conservative media figure recently appointed to the role, pressed agents on the lack of progress, particularly regarding the scrutiny of American government scientists. The meeting reportedly grew contentious, resulting in Bongino dismissing an official who questioned the premise that U.S. researchers, including Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, were involved in a conspiracy to conceal the origins of the virus.

This session helped initiate a broader investigative effort that has persisted beyond Bongino’s January 2026 departure. According to interviews with current and former officials, the FBI and federal prosecutors have requested phone records, emails, grant information, financial data, and grand jury testimony related to at least eight scientists, including Fauci, who led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for nearly four decades. While the precise findings or status of these inquiries remain unclear, Fauci received a pre-emptive pardon from former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. covering official actions from 2014 to 2025, complicating potential legal action.

The investigations intensified after Republican lawmakers last month urged the Department of Justice to probe Fauci’s earlier refusal to answer Senate committee questions. These efforts coincide with document releases that have challenged Fauci’s public reputation. Supporters of the inquiries argue they represent overdue accountability for scientists believed to have helped spark or worsen the pandemic. Critics, including many scientists, view the investigations as politically motivated attempts to deflect blame from the initial Trump administration’s handling of Covid-19, noting a lack of clear evidence implicating Fauci or others in a cover-up or direct involvement in a lab leak.

Under the Trump administration, the FBI’s inquiry focused primarily on whether the virus emerged from a laboratory in Wuhan, China. This inquiry expanded to include several individuals amid efforts to gather evidence concerning researchers’ interactions and funding. In a notable case, Dr. David Morens, a former Fauci adviser at the National Institutes of Health, pleaded guilty in August 2026 to conspiring to conceal federal records by diverting government emails to a personal account. Some of these communications involved attempts to protect scientists under scrutiny for alleged collaboration with the Wuhan lab.

Federal prosecutors in Maryland have sought documents relating to Fauci, including his personal email correspondence and payments for intervening on behalf of grant recipients. Investigators have also subpoenaed a former EcoHealth Alliance staffer. The nonprofit, which received NIH funding for collaborations with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, has been accused by Trump-era officials of supporting risky research linked to the pandemic’s origin. EcoHealth and the NIH have denied that their funded projects involved viruses resembling SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for Covid-19.

Some intelligence agencies and researchers consider a lab origin plausible, citing concerns about biosafety protocols at the Wuhan lab. However, the majority of scientists favor a natural zoonotic origin, based on research indicating the virus likely spilled from animals to humans at a local market in Wuhan. American intelligence officials have stated there is no evidence the Wuhan lab possessed the pandemic virus or a close relative before the outbreak.

Republican lawmakers established a strategy of compiling evidence by questioning lower-level officials and working their way up to prominent figures like Fauci. Emails uncovered during these investigations revealed Morens discussing tactics to evade federal records laws and defending scientific independence amid political pressure. In addition to concealing records, Morens admitted to receiving gifts, including wine from Peter Daszak, former president of EcoHealth, though Daszak characterized the gesture as a sarcastic reference to calls for imprisonment of researchers.

Observers of government oversight criticized attempts to hide pandemic-related communications while noting that officials from both political parties have used private accounts or encrypted communications for official business. Daszak described the investigations as retaliatory, suggesting that public health has become entangled in broader power struggles.

Morens’s attorney stated that his client has acknowledged responsibility for his actions and will continue to do so, underscoring the legal consequences emerging from the investigations. Meanwhile, the FBI and Department of Justice have declined to comment on ongoing inquiries. The expanded federal scrutiny of prominent scientists involved in Covid-19 research reflects the continuing political and scientific divisions over the pandemic’s origin and management.