Fauci Orders Staff “DELETE EVERYTHING!”

Anthony Fauci told a top government aide to delete an email, then later swore under oath to Congress that he never deleted anything at all.

Quick Take

A February 2, 2020 email shows Fauci telling then-National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins to “delete this e-mail after you read it.”
A July 2020 email allegedly repeated the same instruction to Fauci’s chief of staff, Greg Folkers.
Fauci told the House Oversight Committee in 2024, under oath, that he never deleted emails or records tied to COVID-19’s origins.
Fauci’s senior adviser, David Morens, separately admitted deleting emails and using a personal account to dodge public records requests.
Federal law treats unauthorized deletion of government email as a reportable violation, not a private choice.

The Emails That Contradict Sworn Testimony

Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul released an email dated February 2, 2020, in which Fauci wrote to Francis Collins, then head of the National Institutes of Health, “Please delete this e-mail after you read it.” Committee materials tie that message to discussions about the origins of COVID-19 and “getting ahead of the science and narrative”. The timing matters. That was weeks before the world locked down.

Committee records also point to a second email, sent July 20, 2020, where Fauci told his chief of staff, Greg Folkers, the exact same thing: delete this after reading it. Senator Paul has said the repeated instruction shows a pattern, not a one-time slip, and that it directly clashes with what Fauci later told lawmakers under oath.

During a 2024 House hearing, a lawmaker asked Fauci point blank: did you delete any emails or records related to the Wuhan lab or the virus’s origins? Fauci answered, “No, I did not”. He was also asked separately if he ever deleted an official record. Again, he said no. Those denials now sit next to his own written words telling colleagues to hit delete.

A Pattern That Predates the Pandemic Denials

House Oversight documents state that records obtained by the committee show Fauci “directed employees of the National Institutes for Health to destroy federal records.” A separate 2020 email, previously released by the Select Subcommittee, reportedly shows Fauci knew about gain-of-function research happening in Wuhan, China. That knowledge, paired with delete instructions, is what fuels the accusation that this was about controlling a narrative, not routine housekeeping.

Why Deleting Government Email Is Against the Law

This isn’t a gray area. Federal records law says government email counts as an official record the moment it’s created, and agencies cannot delete such records without authorization from the National Archives. The National Institutes of Health’s own policy manual states that deleting a record-worthy email from the system counts as unauthorized destruction and must be reported to the National Archives. An instruction to delete, on its face, runs straight into that rule.

None of the released material proves the emails were actually wiped forever, and that gap matters. An instruction is not the same as a completed act. But the instruction alone raises the legal bar high enough that watchdogs and lawmakers argue it deserves sworn answers, not silence, especially when the instruction was repeated twice.

The Morens Connection Muddies the Picture

Fauci’s longtime senior scientific adviser, David Morens, gave investigators his own trail of concerning behavior. House Oversight released emails where Morens wrote that he learned from the agency’s Freedom of Information Act staff “how to make emails disappear” before search requests hit his inbox. Morens also admitted deleting his correspondence with EcoHealth Alliance specifically to dodge public transparency.

Morens’ conduct is damning on its own, but it is not proof that Fauci personally ordered the same kind of evasion. Critics warn against blending the two men’s records into one story. Fauci’s deletion instructions and Morens’ FOIA workarounds happened in the same orbit, at the same agency, during the same pandemic response, which is why they keep getting mentioned together.

What Happens Next

Lawmakers want the full email headers, server logs, and retention records tied to both the February and July messages, along with testimony from Collins, Folkers, and National Institutes of Health records staff on whether the deletions actually happened. Congress has already called Fauci back to testify again. Whether the emails were truly destroyed, or just ordered destroyed and never carried out, is the question this next round of hearings is built to answer.

SCOOP: Emails I obtained show Fauci again asking an aide to delete an email in violation of federal law.

"PLEASE DELETE THIS EMAIL THEN DELETE FROM THE DELETED FILE," Fauci wrote.

The emails involve Fauci's infamous 2011 op-ed defending gain-of-function research despite the… pic.twitter.com/u4q0eZJUpk

— John F. Kennedy Jr (@johnfkjn) August 29, 2026

What’s already clear is this: a public health official who repeatedly told colleagues to delete records cannot credibly claim, under oath, that he never did. The paper trail exists precisely because someone failed to follow his own instructions. That failure is now the closest thing the public has to the truth.