What full set of Fauci-related emails were produced via FOIA in 2020 and where can they be searched?
Executive summary
Multiple FOIA productions of Anthony Fauci’s work emails were released in 2021 and later, varying by requester and date range: the Washington Post released about 866 pages covering March–April 2020 (reported as such by the Post and fact-checked outlets) while BuzzFeed News obtained roughly 3,200+ pages spanning January–June 2020, and additional, more narrowly scoped FOIA productions (and later NIH postings) produced other batches that reached thousands of pages overall [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. What was produced in 2020 FOIA productions: different sets, different scopes
Journalistic FOIA requests produced multiple overlapping but non‑identical sets of Fauci’s official emails: the Washington Post’s release focused on Fauci’s March and April 2020 correspondence and amounted to about 866 pages as described in its reporting [1] [2], while BuzzFeed News pursued litigation that resulted in more than 3,200 pages covering January through June 2020 [3] [4]; Reuters, NPR and the BBC likewise reported "thousands" of pages spanning roughly January–June 2020 in the major FOIA productions [5] [4] [6].
2. Where those FOIA collections can be searched or downloaded
The major news organizations that obtained records made them accessible via their reporting and document repositories: the Washington Post published an interactive collection tied to its June 2021 coverage [1], BuzzFeed News posted its documents and analysis and linked to the underlying DocumentCloud files [3] [7], and DocumentCloud hosts a large “LEOPOLD NIH FOIA Anthony Fauci Emails” file that shows over 3,200 pages and is searchable/downloadable [7]. Other FOIA requesters and aggregators — including The Black Vault’s targeted FOIA for 2020 “TRUMP” keyword emails and the NIH’s own FOIA library postings — also hold distinct productions and indexes that can be searched [8] [9].
3. Why there are multiple, non‑identical productions (and what that means for researchers)
FOIA produces record sets based on each requester’s scope, keywords and legal actions, so different outlets secured different slices of Fauci’s email archive: reporters’ requests and lawsuits yielded overlapping but non‑identical dumps — some covering January–June 2020, some limited to March–April, and others narrowed further by keywords or time windows — meaning there is no single "master" FOIA package published by journalists in 2021 but rather several productions researchers must consult [2] [3] [7].
4. Depositories and official catalogues to consult next
For the most authoritative, continuously updated holdings, consult the NIH FOIA library and the specific DocumentCloud files linked from major news stories: the NIH maintains a FOIA production index and has posted specific productions related to Fauci and other NIH staff (including correspondence with external parties) that researchers can request or download, while DocumentCloud and the reporting pages of the Washington Post and BuzzFeed provide the journalist‑curated files and search interfaces [9] [7] [1] [3].
5. Caveats, disputes and transparency concerns to keep in mind
Reporting and subsequent oversight probes show disputes about completeness and searchability — critics have alleged deliberate misspellings and use of personal accounts to evade keyword searches and FOIA capture, and congressional inquiries cited emails that suggested tactics to avoid FOIA discovery, raising questions about whether every relevant message was captured in the public productions [10] [11] [12]. Fact‑checkers and FOIA experts emphasize these were obtained through formal FOIA processes rather than “leaks,” and that different productions reflect the legal and practical limits of each request rather than a single comprehensive release [13] [5].