Exclusive | DNI Tulsi Gabbard probes US funding to more than 120 biolabs abroad

Nypost · 🇺🇦 public Ukraine · May 11, 2026 · 912 words · By Josh Christenson

Political Accountability/Administration Conflict National Security and Biosecurity Gain-of-Function Research Ethics

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What to know about Political Accountability/Administration Conflict

WASHINGTON — Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is investigating more than 120 biological laboratories abroad that were funded by US taxpayer dollars for decades, as part of an effort to end potentially risky experiments with viruses pursuant to…

Claims checked 13

Techniques found 5

Topics 3

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage

Left0%

Center86%

Right14%

7 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

Why it matters

Gabbard told The Post Monday in a statement that her team is going “to identify where these labs are, what pathogens they contain and what research is being conducted to end dangerous gain-of-function research that threatens the health and wellbeing of the…

Common ground

“Yet despite these obvious dangers, politicians, so-called health professionals, like Dr.

Perspective signals

The tension in the story is sharpened by Loaded Language, Name Calling / Labeling, Appeal to Anger: language that can make the dispute feel more urgent, personal, or adversarial than the underlying facts alone.

Follow-up questions

What new context would change how readers understand this Political Accountability/Administration Conflict story?
What evidence would most clearly confirm or weaken the claim that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is investigating more than 120 biological laboratories abroad that were funded by US taxpayer dollars for decades?
How does this story connect Political Accountability/Administration Conflict with National Security and Biosecurity over the next few days?

open_in_new Read the original article: https://nypost.com/2026/05/11/us-news/dni-tulsi-gabbard-probes-us-funding-to-mor…

psychologyPropaganda Techniques Detected

eFinder identified 5 propaganda techniques in this article. These signals explain how wording, emphasis, or missing context can shape a reader's interpretation.

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Loaded Language 90% confidence

Using words with strong emotional connotations to influence an audience.

Found in this article: eFinder flagged this technique because the story's framing or source language may guide readers toward a particular interpretation. Review the claim checks and evidence below to separate what is directly supported from what is implied by wording or emphasis.

Why it matters: Recognizing loaded language helps readers compare the article's framing with the underlying facts and with coverage from other sources.

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Name Calling / Labeling 85% confidence

Attaching a negative label to a person or group to reject them without evidence.

Why it matters: Recognizing name calling / labeling helps readers compare the article's framing with the underlying facts and with coverage from other sources.

warning

Appeal to Anger 80% confidence

Provoking outrage to bypass rational evaluation of an argument.

Why it matters: Recognizing appeal to anger helps readers compare the article's framing with the underlying facts and with coverage from other sources.

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Exaggeration / Hyperbole 70% confidence

Overstating facts or claims to create a stronger emotional response.

Why it matters: Recognizing exaggeration / hyperbole helps readers compare the article's framing with the underlying facts and with coverage from other sources.

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Glittering Generalities 75% confidence

Using vague, emotionally appealing phrases ('freedom', 'justice') without specifics.

Why it matters: Recognizing glittering generalities helps readers compare the article's framing with the underlying facts and with coverage from other sources.

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 13 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

verified Verified By Reference 5

schedule Pending 3

help Insufficient Evidence 2

info Single Source 1

verified Verified 1

check_circle Corroborated 1

verified

Claim 1: “Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is investigating more than 120 biological laboratories abroad that were funded by US taxpayer dollars for decades”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

While evidence confirms Tulsi Gabbard is the DNI as of 2025, there is no evidence in the provided search results confirming an investigation into 120 biological laboratories.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — This is a list of episodes for The Daily Show, a late-night talk and satirical news television program airing on Comedy Central, during 2025 (the series' 30th season). Jon Stewart serves as host once …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Daily_Show_episode…

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Senate Intelligence Committee report on Russian interference in the United States presidential election, officially titled Report of the Select Committee on Intelligence United States Senate on Ru…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senate_Intelligence_Committee_…

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — During Donald Trump's second presidency, the Trump administration took a series of actions using the government to target his political opponents and civil society. News outlets described his actions …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Targeting_of_political_opponen…

+ 3 more evidence sources

info

Claim 2: “Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland... said: “Ukraine has biological research facilities which, in fact, we are now quite concerned Russian troops, Russian forces, may be seeking to gain control of.””

SINGLE SOURCE

The provided evidence for this claim consists of results for Queen Victoria and a TV show; there is no evidence of testimony from Undersecretary Victoria Nuland in the provided set.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Victoria is a British historical television drama series created and principally written by Daisy Goodwin, starring Jenna Coleman as Queen Victoria. The series premiered in the United Kingdom on ITV o…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_(British_TV_series)

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (the fourth son of King George III), and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. After the deaths of her father and grandfath…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Victoria

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Victoria: Created by Daisy Goodwin. With Jenna Coleman, Tommy Knight, Adrian Schiller, Jordan Waller. The early life of Queen Victoria, from her ascension to the throne at the tender age of 18 to her …
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5137338/

verified

Claim 3: “More than 40 of the biolabs under review are located in Ukraine”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

The search results mention 'ODNI 2.0' reducing bloat by 40%, but do not provide evidence regarding the number of biological labs in Ukraine being reviewed.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The 2019 Trump–Ukraine political scandal arose primarily from the discovery of U.S. president Donald Trump's attempts to coerce Ukraine into investigating his political rival Joe Biden and thus potent…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Trump–Ukraine_scandal

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Daniel Patrick Driscoll is an American politician, businessman, lawyer, and former military officer who has served as the 26th United States secretary of the Army since 2025. He also served as the act…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_P._Driscoll

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud (born 31 August 1985), also known as MbS, is the de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, formally serving as Crown Prince and Prime Minister. He is the heir apparen…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammed_bin_Salman

+ 3 more evidence sources

verified

Claim 4: “President Trump’s executive order on so-called “gain-of-function” research”

VERIFIED

Multiple web search results confirm the existence of Executive Order 14292, 'Improving the Safety and Security of Biological Research,' which restricts funding for dangerous gain-of-function research.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1. Purpose. Dangerous gain-of-function research on ...
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/05/impr…

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web search NEUTRAL — On May 5, the Trump administration issued Executive Order 14292, "Improving the Safety and Security of Biological Research," which effectively ends federal funding for "dangerous gain-of-function rese…
https://www.lathropgpm.com/insights/trump-executive-order-re…

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Sec. 3. Stop Dangerous Gain-of-Function Research. (a) The Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), in coordination with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget and t…
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/executive-order-14…

help

Claim 5: “more than $1.4 billion being spent on such experiments outside the US between 2014 and 2023”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was found after searching for this specific claim.

help

Claim 6: “Last May, Trump signed an executive action to ban all federal funding for the gain-of-function research in China, Iran or other nations that don’t exercise proper oversight”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was found after searching for this specific claim.

schedule

Claim 7: “Between 2014 and 2021, US-funded experiments on bat coronaviruses at the now-infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology were also found by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to have violated grant terms by making the viruses 10,000 times more infectious”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

schedule

Claim 8: “Dr. Anthony Fauci... wrote in a 2012 scientific paper titled “Research on Highly Pathogenic H5N1 Influenza Virus: The Way Forward.””

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

verified

Claim 9: “the foreign labs extend into more than 30 countries”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

The provided evidence for this claim consists of general information about the United States and unrelated Wikipedia entries; no specific data on the number of countries with US-funded labs was found.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Israel Alexander Englander (born September 30, 1948) is an American billionaire hedge fund manager. In 1989, he founded his hedge fund, Millennium Management, with Ronald Shear. The fund was started w…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Englander

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — U.S. Route 30 or U.S. Highway 30 (US 30) is an east–west main route of the United States Numbered Highway System, with the highway traveling across the Northern U.S. With a length of 3,112 miles (5,00…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_30

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — U.S. Route 30 (US 30) is a United States Numbered Highway that runs east–west across the southern part of Pennsylvania, passing through Pittsburgh and Philadelphia on its way from the West Virginia st…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_30_in_Pennsylvania

+ 3 more evidence sources

verified

Claim 10: “The research, which is part of the Defense Department’s Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) Program”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

Official sources from DTRA and the State Department, as well as Wikipedia, confirm that biological threat reduction and research are part of the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) Program.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) is both a defense agency and a combat support agency within the United States Department of Defense (DoD) for countering weapons of mass destruction (WMD; ch…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_Threat_Reduction_Agenc…

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) is a counterproliferation program of the United States government, initially aimed at the post-Soviet states. As the dissolution of the Soviet Union appeared immine…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nunn–Lugar_Cooperative_Threat_…

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Soviet Nuclear Threat Reduction Act of 1991, 22 U.S.C. § 2551, was chartered to amend the Arms Export Control Act enacting the transfer of Soviet military armaments and ordnances to NATO marking the c…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Nuclear_Threat_Reductio…

+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 11: “The Biden administration denied the existence of US-owned or US-operated “chemical or biological laboratories in Ukraine,” dismissing the claims as Chinese and Russian propaganda in a March 9, 2022, statement”

CORROBORATED

Multiple web search results indicate that the Biden administration denied the existence of US-owned or operated biological labs in Ukraine in early 2022, characterizing such claims as propaganda.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Are there biological research labs in Ukraine or not? The Biden gang admitted to the existence of biolabs on Tuesday but then changed their story on Wednesday.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/03/not-fast-biden-gang…

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — The Biden administration denied any involvement whatsoever in the programme.In January 2022, Ukraine purchased more than 50 similar devices that can be used to apply biological formulations and toxic …
https://sputnikglobe.com/20220415/ukraine-labs-bioweapons-ca…

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web search NEUTRAL — the Biden Admin and MSM coordinated.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/03/11/how-right…

schedule

Claim 12: “Secretary of War Pete Hegseth”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

verified

Claim 13: “several had received funding in the past through a Department of Defense program that sought to dispose of weapons of mass destruction after the end of the Cold War”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

Wikipedia and official DTRA/State Department sources confirm the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program was designed to secure and dispose of WMDs following the end of the Cold War/dissolution of the Soviet Union.

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web search NEUTRAL — When some is used without a number, most commentators feel that somewhat is to be preferred. Their advice is an oversimplification, however; only when some modifies an adjective, usually a comparative…
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/some

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web search NEUTRAL — It'll be some time before we meet again. It was some years later when they next met. We discussed the problem at some length.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/some

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web search NEUTRAL — You use some to emphasize that a quantity or number is fairly small. For example, if something happens to some extent, it happens a little.
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/some

info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.