Newly released diary entries from former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci are reopening one of the most bitter controversies of the COVID era—and revealing that former President Barack Obama played a more active role in Fauci’s response to the 2021 “Beaglegate” firestorm than Fauci’s memoir alone suggested.
The journals, released by Sen. Rand Paul as Fauci prepares for congressional testimony, run more than 1,000 pages and document Fauci’s private thoughts during the pandemic. Contemporary reporting confirms Paul released the material this week.
According to passages attributed to Fauci’s November 2021 diary, Obama called Fauci during the controversy, discussed how the Biden administration might more aggressively defend him, and later connected Fauci with former Obama White House communications official Eric Schultz.
That is substantially more detail than Fauci provided in his 2024 memoir, where he portrayed Obama’s intervention primarily as an encouraging personal phone call.
The newly public entries also describe Fauci’s conversations with Washington Post reporter Yasmeen Abutaleb as she investigated the political campaign surrounding the beagle controversy.
Taken together, the records offer an extraordinary glimpse inside the political, bureaucratic and media battle surrounding one of America’s most powerful public-health officials.
But they require an important distinction: the diaries document conversations and proposed communications strategies; they do not, by themselves, prove that Obama controlled Washington Post coverage or orchestrated a covert media operation.
What they do show is that Fauci wanted allies to push back—and that a former president personally became involved.
Fauci’s Private Journals Suddenly Become Public
Paul released Fauci’s pandemic-era journals ahead of a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing concerning the origins of COVID-19.
CBS News reports that the release encompasses more than 1,000 pages of Fauci’s journal entries. The Washington Post likewise reported that the records reveal Fauci’s private assessments of political officials, media coverage and the pandemic response.
Buried among those entries is a remarkable chronology surrounding Beaglegate.
In late October 2021, Fauci recorded his frustration with allegations that NIAID funding was connected to controversial experiments involving beagles.
He believed there was an organized campaign to destroy his reputation.
And he wanted answers.
First, The Beagle Experiments Were Not Imaginary
The political claims surrounding Beaglegate became tangled with several different experiments, funding streams and images.
NIAID did fund research involving beagles. FactCheck.org confirmed in November 2021 that the agency provided grants for medical studies using dogs, including separate leishmaniasis research. In one NIAID laboratory experiment, eight beagles were intentionally infected with Leishmania infantum; they developed skin lesions and were eventually euthanized.
The Washington Post also documented an NIAID grant to the University of Georgia associated with research involving 28 beagles.
But one particularly viral allegation was different.
Images showing beagles with their heads placed inside mesh enclosures where sand flies could feed became synonymous with the controversy. NIAID denied funding that specific experiment, and the journal publishing the study corrected its funding statement, saying NIH and the Wellcome Trust had been credited erroneously.
At the same time, NIAID acknowledged financing a different Tunisian canine leishmaniasis project.
That distinction was frequently lost as Beaglegate exploded across social media.
So the accurate picture is neither “nothing happened” nor “every viral allegation was proven.”
Federally funded experiments involving beagles existed.
The dispute concerned which experiments NIAID funded, what procedures were performed and how the controversy was portrayed to the public.
Fauci Saw An Organized Campaign Against Him
Fauci’s diary portrays a man increasingly convinced that political opponents were attempting to destroy him.
According to the newly released passages, he wrote on October 25, 2021, that there appeared to be a “concerted effort” attacking him over the dog experiments.
He also recorded the flood of calls directed toward him.
That harassment was real enough that the Washington Post later reported Fauci’s office received roughly 3,600 calls within 36 hours, including threats and abusive messages.
But Fauci’s response to the political campaign is now receiving as much attention as the attacks themselves.
Because his diary suggests he wasn’t merely waiting for the controversy to disappear.
He was talking with some extremely influential people.
Enter The Washington Post
One diary entry describes Fauci speaking at length with Washington Post reporter Yasmeen Abutaleb.
According to the entry provided in the newly released material, Fauci believed Abutaleb was interested in determining whether political organizations were behind the campaign attacking him.
That matters because Abutaleb and Beth Reinhard subsequently published a major November 19 investigation examining White Coat Waste and the Beaglegate controversy.
The article described White Coat Waste as a relatively little-known animal-rights organization whose campaign leveraged hostility toward Fauci among conservatives. It also examined the erroneous funding attribution connected to the Tunisian experiment.
Fauci’s diary reportedly celebrated the resulting article.
But evidence that Fauci spoke with a reporter before publication is not, on its own, evidence that he controlled the resulting story. Journalists routinely communicate with subjects and sources while investigating stories.
The more consequential question is whether Fauci or government officials improperly attempted to manipulate coverage—and that requires evidence beyond the diary’s description of conversations.
Still, the entries reveal something readers didn’t know when the original article appeared:
Fauci was privately watching the media response closely and viewed favorable coverage as an important counterweight to the campaign against him.
Then Barack Obama Called
The story becomes considerably more significant on November 4.
According to Fauci’s diary, former Obama administration official Leslie Dach contacted Barack Obama and asked him to call Fauci.
Obama did.
Fauci recorded a roughly 25-minute conversation in which the former president reportedly expressed concern about the attacks against him and offered assistance.
According to the diary passage, Obama discussed contacting Biden administration officials Ron Klain or Jeff Zients and believed the administration should do more than simply express confidence in Fauci.
Fauci wrote that Obama favored going on the offensive against those spreading allegations he regarded as false.
That goes beyond a simple “How are you holding up?” phone call.
And that distinction matters because Fauci’s memoir presented the Obama call much more narrowly—as emotional encouragement from a former president concerned about the pressure he was facing.
The diary adds political and communications discussions absent from that abbreviated account.
Obama Connects Fauci With Eric Schultz
Six days later came another development.
Fauci recorded a November 10 Zoom meeting with Eric Schultz, a former Obama White House principal deputy press secretary.
According to Fauci’s diary, the meeting occurred at Obama’s request.
Fauci described Schultz as experienced in communications and in responding to criticism during Obama’s presidency.
The two discussed Fauci’s communications and legislative staff and the difficulty of countering hostile media and political critics.
Most notably, Fauci’s entry says Schultz was interested in the forthcoming Washington Post story and discussed whether other journalists could be encouraged to scrutinize the organizations attacking Fauci.
This establishes a clearer chain than Fauci’s memoir disclosed:
Beaglegate erupts → Fauci discusses the controversy with a Washington Post reporter → Obama calls Fauci → Obama connects Fauci with a former White House communications strategist → the media response becomes part of that discussion.
That chronology is newsworthy.
But describing it as proof Obama “weaponized” the Washington Post goes beyond what the available evidence establishes. The diaries show interest in favorable or investigative media coverage; they do not establish Obama directed the newspaper or dictated its reporting.
The Washington Post Story Arrives
On November 19, 2021, Abutaleb and Reinhard published their investigation.
The story examined the flood of angry calls directed at Fauci and challenged the claim that NIAID financed the specific Tunisian experiment depicted in viral images.
The Post nevertheless acknowledged that White Coat Waste had identified other dog studies supported by NIAID.
Fauci was delighted.
According to the newly released diary passage, he described the Post story as a “Fantastic article” that effectively rebutted claims made against him.
What the public saw was a newspaper investigation.
What Fauci’s journal now adds is his private view of the article as part of the larger struggle over his reputation.
That does not invalidate the article’s factual findings.
But it adds context to the relationships and communications unfolding behind the scenes.
The $424,000 University Of Georgia Controversy
One of White Coat Waste’s major allegations involved an NIAID grant to the University of Georgia.
The Washington Post reported that the study involved 28 beagles injected with parasite larvae as researchers investigated a vaccine for lymphatic filariasis. The dogs were ultimately euthanized because the infection was not endemic to the United States and infected animals could not legally be released.
The ethical question surrounding such experiments is separate from the dispute about whether Fauci personally designed them.
As NIAID director, Fauci headed the agency.
That doesn’t mean he personally selected every experiment conducted under every grant.
But taxpayers are entitled to ask what federal agencies finance, whether animal experiments are necessary, what welfare standards apply and who is accountable for those decisions.
Those questions don’t disappear simply because political activists were among those asking them.
What Fauci’s Diary Establishes—And What It Doesn’t
The newly released records provide significant evidence about Fauci’s private response to the controversy.
They indicate that Obama personally contacted him, discussed a stronger response, connected him with Schultz, and that Fauci and Schultz discussed communications strategy and media coverage.
They also show Fauci communicating with a Washington Post reporter before publication of a story he later praised.
Those are legitimate matters for congressional scrutiny.
But three separate claims should not be collapsed into one.
The diary documents coordination and advice between Fauci and political allies.
It documents Fauci’s interactions with journalists.
It does not yet establish that Obama or Fauci controlled Washington Post editorial decisions.
That distinction makes the underlying story stronger, not weaker, because congressional investigators can now ask specific questions based on documented communications rather than speculation.
The Bigger Question: Where Does Public Service End And Political Damage Control Begin?
Fauci repeatedly characterized himself as a career scientist rather than a politician.
Obama himself reportedly emphasized Fauci’s status as a “civilian” during their conversation.
Yet the diary illustrates how quickly science, government communications, politics and media became intertwined during the pandemic.
When one of America’s most powerful health officials came under attack, the response involved the sitting Biden administration, a former president, an experienced political communications operative and extensive national media coverage.
That doesn’t automatically prove misconduct.
But it raises an accountability question:
When a federal official’s reputation becomes intertwined with government policy, where does legitimate public communication end and political reputation management begin?
Congress now has the opportunity to ask.
The Prophetic Dimension: Truth In An Age Of Powerful Institutions
For Christians, this story carries a warning extending beyond Fauci, Obama, Republicans, Democrats or any particular news organization.
Scripture repeatedly warns about the enormous power of deception when authority and information become concentrated.
Isaiah 5:20 warns against calling evil good and good evil.
Ephesians 5:11 instructs believers to expose works of darkness rather than participate in them.
And Luke 8:17 reminds us that concealed things ultimately come to light.
That does not mean every government official is corrupt or every media report is propaganda.
It means Christians are commanded to practice discernment.
The prophetic concern becomes especially important as governments, corporations, artificial intelligence platforms, media organizations and digital systems gain unprecedented ability to shape what billions of people see and believe.
Revelation describes a future system in which political, economic and spiritual authority become deeply intertwined.
Today’s controversies should not automatically be labeled fulfillment of those prophecies.
But they demonstrate why a civilization that loses transparency, accountability and independent scrutiny becomes vulnerable to manipulation.
Truth must never depend upon which political faction controls the microphone.
The Fauci Diaries May Have Just Opened Another Investigation
For years, Beaglegate was treated largely as a fight over animal experimentation and disputed claims about government funding.
The Fauci diaries add another dimension.
The question is no longer simply what experiments occurred.
It is also how one of America’s most powerful federal officials responded when those experiments became a political crisis—and how far his network of political and media relationships extended.
Fauci is scheduled to testify before Paul’s Senate committee as scrutiny of his pandemic-era decisions continues.
The diary gives senators something they didn’t previously possess:
Fauci’s own contemporaneous account.
And unlike political talking points written years afterward, diaries can reveal what someone believed was important while events were actually unfolding.
Related News Watchmen Coverage
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Frequently Asked Questions
What are the Fauci diaries?
They are more than 1,000 pages of pandemic-era journal entries attributed to Anthony Fauci and released by Sen. Rand Paul in July 2026.
Did Barack Obama contact Fauci during Beaglegate?
According to Fauci’s newly released diary, yes. Fauci recorded a November 2021 call in which Obama offered assistance and discussed responding to attacks against him.
Did Obama connect Fauci with Eric Schultz?
According to Fauci’s diary, Fauci met Schultz by Zoom on November 10, 2021, at Obama’s request.
Did NIAID fund experiments involving beagles?
Yes. NIAID funded multiple research projects involving dogs. However, NIH denied funding the specific Tunisian experiment depicted in some of the most widely circulated Beaglegate images.
Did the diary prove Obama controlled the Washington Post’s Beaglegate coverage?
No. The entries document communications, media strategy discussions and Fauci’s interest in the Post’s investigation, but the material cited so far does not establish that Obama or Fauci controlled the newspaper’s editorial decisions.
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