EXCLUSIVE: Republicans escalate COVID origins investigation and press HHS and Dr. Fauci’s chief of staff for more info – lawmakers THREATEN subpoenas following bombshell allegations the CIA covered up virus came from Wuhan lab
Republicans are escalating their investigation into the origins of COVID, demanding that the Biden administration and other key players comply with their requests or risk being subpoenaed.
The ramping up of their investigation comes the same week that a CIA whistleblower told Congress that the agency had bribed its own analysts to say that COVID-19 did not originate in a laboratory in Wuhan.
In a letter sent Thursday to HHS Sec. Xavier Becerra First obtained by DailyMail.com, Republicans write that they “expect full and timely compliance” with their requests, which have gone unanswered since they launched the investigation in February.
They demand documents between HHS and EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan Institute of Virology – which received US taxpayer-funded grants to study bat coronaviruses through risky gain-of-function research.
They also want details about a series of conference calls and communications between top HHS officials and medical professionals, organizations and others about the origins of COVID.
Lawmakers also sent similar letters to individuals they say have “in-depth knowledge” of COVID’s origins, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, Greg Folkers, President of the EcoHealth Alliance, Dr. Peter Daszak, and Gray Handley, who was the liaison between the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Chinese.
A CIA whistleblower recently told Congress that the agency bribed its own analysts to say Covid-19 did not come from a laboratory in Wuhan, according to two Republicans.
They threaten to hit the authorities and individuals with subpoenas if they do not comply.
Key Republican chairs who signed the letters Thursday include: Brad Wenstrup, James Comer, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Morgan Griffith and Brett Guthrie.
According to an experienced ‘senior level’ agent, the CIA has assigned seven agents to a Covid Discovery Team.
At the end of their research, six out of seven believed the intelligence community pointed to an uncertain assessment that Covid-19 originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China.
The seventh member, the oldest of the team, believed it had evolved naturally. The other six were then given a “significant financial incentive to change their position,” the whistleblower said.
The CIA ultimately declined to make an assessment, even with little confidence.
“Both hypotheses are based on significant assumptions or face challenges with conflicting reporting,” the agency said.
The CIA denied involvement in bribery and said it would investigate the allegations.
Republican Congressmen Mike Turner and Brad Wenstrup, both from Ohio, who lead the intelligence and Covid committees respectively, wrote a letter to CIA Director William Burns on Tuesday demanding all documents on the matter.
Lawmakers set a September 26 deadline for the CIA to turn over all records of the COVID Discovery Team and all communications with the FBI, State Department, Health and Human Services, and Energy Department on the matter.
The Department of Energy, which oversees biological research laboratories in the US, concluded in February this year with “low confidence” that the virus most likely originated in a laboratory in Wuhan. The FBI concluded the same with moderate confidence.
Five other intelligence agencies concluded that natural transmission – the theory that the virus jumped from an animal to a human host – is more likely.
U.S. officials remain frustrated by Chinese efforts to determine the origins of the virus.
Researchers who conducted work at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in 2017
Select Subcommittee Chairman on the Coronavirus Pandemic Brad Wenstrup
Now they may never definitively come to the conclusion where it all started: the authorities in China some virus samples destroyed and others used for research, U.S. officials say.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a declassified report in June detailing their inconclusive findings.
“All agencies continue to assess that both natural and laboratory-related origins remain plausible hypotheses to explain the first human infection,” the report said.
As of this month, about seven million people have died since the virus swept across the world in early 2020.