In news that will negatively impact the already diminishing confidence Americans have in the Justice Department, FDA and CDC, the Washington Examiner reports that government records reveal the FBI investigated — but did not make public — Dr. Fauci’s National Institutes of Health (NIH) approval of a grant tied to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Many scientists have linked the Wuhan lab to the origin of COVID-19 virus and pandemic — a well-documented assertion that Fauci rejects.
Contradicting earlier statements by Fauci, The Examiner reports that NIH emails show the FBI investigated possible gain-of-function research at the lab and possible failures to comply with reporting rules.
The new documents were discovered and released by Judicial Watch.
Documents reveal that Ashley Sanders, a senior official in the NIH Division of Program Integrity, emailed David Miller at the FBI Newark Field Office. The May 2020 email was titled, “Grant Questions – FBI Inquiry – 1-R01AI110964-01 – 2-R01AI110964-06.”
According to the Examiner report, the “R01AI110964 tag is the identifier for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases award to EcoHealth Alliance titled Understanding Bat Coronavirus Emergence.”
A sub-award from that grant funded work at the Wuhan lab.
NIH’s email to the FBI was copied to various NIH officials, including Erik Stemmy, who was mentioned in the correspondence:
“In preparation for our call on Tuesday,” the letter reads, “Erik (cc’d) has provided responses to your initial questions below (also attached).”
The Examiner noted that “the more than four pages of responses are completely redacted aside from a reference to the U.S. grant to EcoHealth.”
The Washington Examiner reports it reached out to the FBI and NIH about the investigation. The FBI declined to comment. The NIH did not respond.
The Examiner previously reported that Peter Daszak of EcoHealth is known as a longtime “collaborator with the Wuhan lab,” having “steered hundreds of thousands of dollars in NIH funding to the Chinese lab.”
Seeking to minimize discussion connecting the NIH, the FBI, and the Wuhan lab with gain-of-function research or the origins of COVID, Daszak dismissed the lab-connection hypothesis in March 2021. Minutes from meetings with lead researchers in the early days of the pandemic reveal that “lab leak concerns were referred to as myths and conspiracy theories.”
In June, the World Health Organization stated that the lab leak hypothesis “needed further study.”
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