Were Dr. Anthony Fauci's emails leaked to the public?

There have been several misrepresentations on social media describing the disclosure of Dr. Anthony Fauci's emails as a "leak."

The emails were not leaked.

Several media outlets, including The Washington Post, CNN and BuzzFeed News, filed Freedom of Information Act requests for Fauci's office emails.

Fauci is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and courts have held that, barring certain exemptions, a public official's email is a public document open to access.

The release of the emails to the requesting media outlets is an example of the open access to information that the FOIA is intended to guarantee. To call the emails "leaked" implies someone made them available to the public without permission of the agency or person who created the emails, who possibly wanted to keep the contents from public scrutiny.