Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, urged President Biden on May 16 to order a government-wide investigation into the origin of the Chinese Communist virus (New Crown virus, COVID-19).
In his letter, Nunes told President Biden that Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee are concerned about circumstantial evidence that the virus may have been leaked from a Wuhan laboratory that received millions of dollars in funding from the U.S. government.
Nunes wrote, “During the course of our investigation, substantial circumstantial evidence has been uncovered that supports the theory that the lab leak may have been the origin of COVID-19.”
“A thorough review of this possibility is critical, especially given the Chinese Communist government’s obstruction of multilateral bio-forensic investigations (bio-forensic investigations) and the destruction of important evidence.”
In explaining why the investigation is needed, Nunes quoted U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who said, “If we want to prevent it from happening again as much as possible and ensure that we can build a stronger global health security system that allows us to prevent, detect and mitigate future pandemics, we need to understand exactly what happened.”
Nunes also sent a letter to National Intelligence Director Avril Haines pointing out the lack of U.S. intelligence on the Chinese Communist virus. Nunes said he was aware of allegations that the intelligence community suppressed dissenting views on the source of the CCP virus “and that the intelligence community relied on outside experts whose interests have not been disclosed.”
As a Republican representative on the House Intelligence Committee, Nunes wrote, “As members of Congress charged with overseeing the U.S. intelligence agencies, we believe that the intelligence agencies have failed to provide policymakers, with timely reports and analysis.”
“In addition, the intelligence community has not been forthcoming about exactly what kind of processing was done in releasing early statements about the origin of the virus, and these seemingly authoritative conclusions have now been called into question,” the letter reads, “raising questions about the validity of the intelligence community’s early judgments, and the COVID-19 analysis casts doubt on the veracity of the report.”
Copies of the letter, addressed to Haynes, were sent to the heads of 11 intelligence agencies. Nunes raised numerous questions and asked for more documents to be made public, including a request for a copy of the intelligence report on the origins of the pandemic, which had not previously been provided to the Intelligence Committee.
Haynes said on April 15 that the intelligence community considers a laboratory accident, one of two plausible scenarios for a virus release.
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