by WorldTribune Staff, September 24, 2026 Non-AI Real World News

Congressional investigators looking into the federal funding of dangerous gain-of-function research are being stonewalled by both parties, Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul said.

Paul, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, has urged lawmakers to utilize spending bills to compel agencies to hand over long-sought documents on the research which many believe precipitated the creation of Covid.

To bypass institutional pushback, Paul introduced the Risky Research Review Act. The bill proposes establishing an independent, Executive Branch body called the Life Sciences Research Security Board to oversee and audit the funding of high-risk life sciences research.

Paul told Just the News his investigation into Anthony Fauci’s involvement in the Covid pandemic has uncovered fresh evidence of government-document destruction and more extensive gain-of-function research that enhances the human lethality of viruses.

Paul said the revelations were included in communications on Fauci’s phone, computer and diary and were the reason why his committee tried but failed Wednesday to pass a measure granting prosecutorial immunity to a former top aide to Fauci so she could testify freely about the issues.

Democrats kept the committee from reaching the required two-thirds majority needed to pass the immunity measure.

“We will have some more explosive information that comes out in the next week, though, that some of the communications between Anthony Fauci and his assistant involved some programs that are very worrisome, gain-of-function programs that we didn’t know existed until we came across these emails,” Paul told Just the News.

He added: “It is our belief that most of the gain-of-function research that’s going on, and probably still goes on, is classified and done in the bioweapons or biodefense category, but they won’t tell us.”

Paul did not reserve criticism for Democrats, however. He also called out Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee.

“There’s an internal fight in Congress,” Paul said. “So Tom Cotton is the chairman of the Intelligence Committee. He is doing everything he possibly can to prevent us from getting information about these programs. He has written to the Director of National Intelligence and said that he does not want any information shared with our committee.

“If it goes to him, he might condescend if he decides to do so, to let us look at some information. But the problem is what we really need are scientists. And even when I oversee this, I ask the opinion of scientists because it’s classified. We have no assurance that any scientists with any kind of skepticism are looking over this and saying whether we should be doing this or not, and if you want to be alarmed by this.”

Meanwhile, Paul said he has found more evidence of the culture of secrecy inside Fauci’s inner circle, including possible destruction of documents mentioned by the assistant. Government emails are generally required to be preserved under the Federal Records Act.

“By looking at Anthony Fauci’s logs that he was keeping on a government computer, we discovered that his assistant was bragging to him in one of the emails. ‘Hey, Dr. Fauci, I was able to destroy tons of your emails this weekend.’ Well, that’s illegal,” Paul said.

That discovery was a key reason why the committee wanted to grant immunity to the former top Fauci aide, he said.

Paul said he remains hopeful he can still reach a deal with the aide and her lawyers to secure that testimony. But if not, the senator plans to refer the matter to the Justice Department.

“Within a week or two, if we don’t get that cooperation, what’s going to happen is she will be referred to the Department of Justice, and see, they don’t have to vote at the Department of Justice. They don’t have to vote on indicting someone. They have to say they broke the law, and they don’t have to vote on offering someone immunity.

“It’s a typical way prosecutors act is you give immunity to the lower echelon people to get them to give information on who was giving the illegal orders to them, so they do have the ability to do it, and we keep hoping they will.”

250 Years of Freedom Is At Risk

  It’s a big secret: Both parties thwarting scrutiny of gain-of-function research, says Rand Paul, WorldTribune.com