Key figure associated with Dr. Fauci in COVID-19 origins investigation Peter Daszak is being grilled by Republicans over his role in the gain-of-function study at the Wuhan Institute of Virology

EcoHealth Alliance Chairman Dr. Peter Daszak — who received federal funding for coronavirus research in Wuhan, China, before the COVID-19 pandemic — will face pressure from Republicans on Wednesday.

Daszak is believed to have critical knowledge about the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s (WIV) extensive coronavirus efforts before the COVID-19 outbreak — and the GOP wants answers.

“Peter Daszak is the closest this committee will ever come to interrogating a Chinese spy,” Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, who sits on the committee, told DailyMail.com exclusively in a statement.

“His direct role in providing funding for the Wuhan Lab and his lies and personal involvement in the COVID cover-up that followed were directly responsible for the public health and economic disaster that followed.”

‘As the saying goes, ‘follow the money’ and the money flowed straight from Dr. Fauci and the NIH to Daszak’s EcoHealth Alliance and his gain-of-function research,” Jackson continued. “This IS where COVID originated and this IS who funded it!”

Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., told DailyMail.com exclusively ahead of Wednesday’s hearing: “I want to confront him about how he got a refund for his investigation.”

Daszak has long studied coronaviruses and sought U.S. government funding for research in collaboration with the WIV and NIAID well before the COVID-19 pandemic began

He claimed that Daszak’s gain-of-function research was fully reimbursed by the US

In addition, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., told DailyMail.com that she looks forward to Daszak’s answers about why EcoHealth received U.S. government funding in the first place.

“Why do we, the American taxpayers, give money to EcoHealth,” she said. ‘If you sublet some of these subsidies to different organizations, you need to know what they do with the money.’

Last month, Daszak was accused of helping a top aide to Dr. Anthony Fauci, David Morens, undermine federal transparency laws by communicating on non-government accounts, saying, “From now on, we will communicate with you via Gmail.”

The EcoHealth founder then said he had “15,000 samples in freezers in Wuhan” that could help them “examine the complete genomes of more than 700 (coronaviruses).”

On Wednesday, Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Chairman Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, will question Daszak about his correspondence with Morens, Fauci and the WIV on the origins of COVID-19.

Wenstrup sent a subpoena to Morens demanding he turn over documents from his personal email account regarding COVID-19, coronavirus grant funding and his communications with Fauci and former NIH director Francis Collins, among other top health officials.

He was expected to receive these materials from the former Fauci aide on Tuesday, ahead of Daszak’s confirmation hearing the following day.

The Ohio Republican previously said a whistleblower provided him with the material showing Morens used his personal email.

WHO team member Peter Daszak leaves his hotel after the World Health Organization (WHO) team concludes its investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 coronavirus in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei province on February 10, 2021

Morens served as a senior advisor to former NIAID director Dr. Anthony Fauci, and according to his LinkedIn account, he still works there in the same capacity

Another email shows that Morens appears to be exposing Fauci’s efforts to provide “damage control” for EcoHealth.

“Tony is fully aware of it now, I think, and I’m told he’s involved in some form of harm reduction,” Morens told Daszak.

Republicans previously revealed that EcoHealth and the WIV, in partnership with NIAID, submitted a proposal to federal officials seeking funding to create a novel coronavirus in 2018.

And Wenstrup has accused EcoHealth of using taxpayer money “to fund dangerous gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”

“These emails raise serious concerns that federal health officials may be covering up the origins of the pandemic,” Wenstrup previously said.

The subject line of one of the messages between EcoHealth’s Morens and Daszak’s personal email includes a reference to a National Institute of Health (NIH) grant proposal that provided $661,980 for a 2019 project titled “Understanding the Risk or Bat Coronavirus Emergence’.

Another subject line from his personal email reads “COVID-19 update (312): China, SARS-CoV2 origin, animal reservoir, WHO mission,” indicating the two discussed the origins of the disease.

A third email from Morens had a subject line that referred to “our suspended R01,” possibly indicating that funding for the bat coronavirus research project was halted at some point.

However, during his transcribed interview with the Select Subcommittee in January, Morens denied removing any federal data on the origins of COVID-19, the lawmaker said.

EcoHealth, run by Daszak, sought federal funding for gain-of-function research in collaboration with the Wuhan Institute

Morens also previously admitted to the committee in a closed interview that “I will remove anything I don’t want to see in the New York Times.”

“I always try to communicate via Gmail because my NIH email gets hacked all the time,” Morens told the committee at the time.