A new allegation claims that Dr. Anthony Fauci may have influenced the CIA’s investigation into the origins of the coronavirus.
When the COVID-19 pandemic began, China pointed to a market in Wuhan as the source of the outbreak and has insisted that the virus came from animals.
However, researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology were studying coronaviruses at the time, and a theory has developed that they could have been the culprit through either an intentional or unintentional leak.
The FBI and the Department of Energy have both come out in support of this theory.
Fauci, who through his work at the National Institutes of Health had been involved in shipping federal grants to the Wuhan lab to support the research there, has emerged as a zealous critic of the lab leak theory.
A June report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said the lab leak theory is “plausible” but that the CIA was unable to determine the origins of the virus.
Now, the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic believes Fauci’s influence may be the reason the CIA will not offer a conclusion, according to a news release from the committee.
The release said the committee is in possession of “recently acquired whistleblower testimony alleging that the CIA potentially skewed its COVID-19 origins review by offering six analysts significant financial incentives to conclude that the result of its investigation was inconclusive.”
The release said this development, coupled with the March revelation that Fauci is linked to an influential 2020 report that tried to dismantle the lab leak theory, “lends credence to heightened concerns about the promotion of a false COVID-19 origins narrative by multiple federal government agencies.”
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In a Tuesday letter to Inspector General Christi Grimm of the Department of Health and Human Services, subcommittee Chairman Rep. Brad Wenstrup of Ohio demanded the facts.
“According to information gathered by the Select Subcommittee, Dr. Anthony Fauci, then-director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, played a role in the Central Intelligence Agency’s review of the origins of COVID-19,” Wenstrup wrote in the letter.
“The information provided suggests that Dr. Fauci was escorted into Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Headquarters — without a record of entry — and participated in the analysis to ‘influence’ the Agency’s review,” he wrote.
Wenstrup requested information about Fauci’s movements and possible trips to CIA facilities.
🚨BREAKING🚨
New allegation: @CIA secretly escorted Dr. Anthony Fauci into Agency Headquarters to “influence” its COVID-19 origins investigation. pic.twitter.com/MilogK6xll
— Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic (@COVIDSelect) September 26, 2023
“The SSCP has received information from multiple sources across multiple agencies regarding Dr. Fauci’s movements to and from the CIA,” a committee representative told Newsweek.
“As such, we have requested a range of relevant documents and a transcribed interview with the special agent who has direct knowledge of Dr. Fauci’s detail.”
The CIA had very little public reaction to the allegations.
“We don’t discuss specific meetings, but we routinely engage with experts from inside and outside the government as part of our analytic process,” a CIA representative said.
A representative of HHS dismissed the letter.
“This allegation is the latest distraction put forth by House Republicans after months wasting taxpayer dollars on seemingly endless conspiracy theories, all while failing to produce any new evidence related to the origins of COVID-19,” the representative said.