A bombshell report released by a House committee on Monday says the Justice Department is investigating the U.S. government for directing U.S. taxpayer funds to Chinese laboratories suspected of leaking the coronavirus and sparking a global pandemic. Secretly launched a grand jury investigation into the nonprofit organization.
Scientific experts and former federal officials say EcoHealth Alliance's grants to China's Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) funded gain-of-function research that may have led to the lab leak. However, requests for records have been repeatedly blocked by national laboratories. According to the report, health.
Details of an apparent federal investigation into EcoHealth Alliance remain secret — and members of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic say 520-page report on pandemic causes and responsedeclined to discuss the matter, citing concerns about potentially interfering with the Justice Department's investigation.
However, internal EcoHealth Alliance emails and records included in the report show that a grand jury subpoenaed EcoHealth's genetic sequencing of the Wuhan virus study and communications between the group's president, Dr. Peter Daszak, and Dr. Shi. It has been revealed that it has been published. Zheng Li is his collaborator and so-called “bat lady” at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which specializes in coronaviruses.
In an intercepted email, an attorney from the firm Tarter, Krinsky & Drogin asked Daszak for more time to comply with a request for documents from the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which conducted its own investigation. , instructing Daszak to “skip” mention of the federal investigation. About the new coronavirus pandemic.
“If there are any objections to reasonable extensions, we believe they can be raised at any time,” the attorneys wrote in the Feb. 6, 2023, letter. “Particularly on the executive branch side, the Department of Justice grand jury investigation appears to have remained private so far, but we will act as quickly as possible under the circumstances without inviting an investigation into other requests for information. I think it's better to just say that.”
“Department of Justice subpoena for genetic sequencing, documents almost complete,” reads one slide from EcoHealth, which appears to have been prepared by a law firm.
Federal prosecutors also issued subpoenas for emails between EcoHealth and Zhenli, both at their official and personal addresses in Wuhan, according to other emails obtained by Congressional investigators.
Some requests for Daszak's viral sequences never reached their intended recipients.
EcoHealth's lawyers told the subcommittee on Nov. 1 that the emails “should not be read to confirm or deny the existence of an investigation,” but 14 days later lawyers told Congressional staff that the emails “should not be read to confirm or deny the existence of an investigation.” He said the communication did not include a Justice Department investigation into Mr. Daszak or his investigation. Non-profit.
The House Coronavirus Committee also said it had reached a bipartisan agreement that Daszak, who was already facing criminal charges before the federal suspension, “should never again receive U.S. taxpayer funds.” Committee Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R) made the announcement in a letter attached to the report. -Oh).
In response to questions from the Post, a spokesperson for House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said the committee “will continue to pursue records and answers that have been hidden from investigation.” I swore.
Rep. Morgan Griffith, a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, told the Post that the report “reveals deficiencies in NIH oversight.”
“The NIH failed to obtain necessary information, progress reports, and critical information that American taxpayers paid for,” Griffiths said, as well as “public hearings and depositions with key NIH personnel and Dr. “It confirms some of the ideas I advanced in 2008,” he added. Daszak. ”
The National Institutes of Health (NIH), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and other agencies awarded millions of dollars worth of grants to now-shut down public health nonprofits. Among them is a $4 million NIH project titled “Understanding the Risks of Bats with the Emergence of the Coronavirus.” ”
More than $1.4 million went to WIV from NIH and USAID for the project, and the agency's principal deputy director, Dr. Lawrence Tabak, later described it as a bat coronavirus that was modified to multiply 10,000 times more than the SARS and MERS viruses. Acknowledged that it was a gain-of-function study of highly infectious.
Although the resulting virus was different from SARS-CoV-2, another EcoHealth grant proposal, in which Daszak downplayed the involvement of collaboration with Chinese researchers, was subsequently used to manipulate the virus. It has been flagged as a possible “blueprint.”
In a congressional pursuit earlier this year, Daszak also admitted that he had not asked Zheng Li, a longtime collaborator and WIV deputy director, about virus sequences before the pandemic began.
Previous findings and public hearings held by the subcommittee revealed specific ways in which EcoHealth violated the terms of its grant agreement with the NIH, leading to the suspension of funding.
In May, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that, based on evidence compiled by the House Coronavirus Subcommittee, the nonprofit organization was “more than two years late” in one review of its grant proposal for a Wuhan project on bat coronaviruses. The decision was made.
These experiments “likely violated NIH protocols for biosafety,” said HHS Deputy Assistant Secretary for Acquisitions Katrina Brisbon, who told EcoHealth that gain-of-function research was part of the grant. He said he had been given the opportunity to disprove the case, but it was a “failed experiment.” Please do so. ”
The commission also found that restrictions imposed by governments during the COVID-19 pandemic were largely “arbitrary” and caused more harm than good.
“The prolonged lockdown has caused untold harm not only to the American economy but also to the mental and physical health of Americans, with a particularly negative impact on young people,” the report said.
“Rather than prioritizing the protection of the most vulnerable, federal and state government policies have forced millions of Americans to give up important elements of a healthy and economically sound life. It was.”
Despite repeated claims by public health officials such as former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci about mask mandates, the subcommittee concluded that masks could prevent Americans from contracting the coronavirus. There was no conclusive evidence that it would effectively protect against , and vice versa.
The subcommittee's report said, “Public health officials have overturned the effectiveness of masks without providing Americans with scientific data, greatly increasing public distrust,” and said that Fauci and others have been infected. It noted that it advocates for 6 feet of social distancing to slow the spread. The virus was “arbitrary and not based in science.”
Fauci acknowledged as much in an interview and transcript of a hearing before the coronavirus committee earlier this year.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted a lack of trust in leadership. Trust is earned. Accountability, transparency, honesty and integrity will restore this trust,” Wenstrup reported. I wrote this in a letter to Congress about the book.
“Future pandemics will require an all-American response managed by people without personal interests or bias. We can always do better and for the benefit of future generations of Americans. You have to. You can do it.”
Representatives for EcoHealth and Tarter, Krinsky and Drogin did not immediately respond to The Post's inquiries.
The Justice Department declined to comment.
