Fauci ​​secretly went to CIA HQ to ‘influence’ COVID-19 origins probe, House Republican alleges

Dr. Anthony Fauci was secretly “escorted” to CIA headquarters where he attempted to “influence” the outcome of the agency’s investigations into the origins of COVID-19 during the pandemic, the Republican chairman of the House coronavirus panel alleges. 

Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), the head of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, revealed what he called “concerning information” obtained by his panel in a letter sent to the inspector general of the ​​Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday, arguing that it “lends credence to heightened concerns about the promotion of a false COVID-19 origins narrative by multiple federal government agencies.” 

“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,” Wenstrup said. “Our goal is to ensure the scientific investigative process regarding the origins of COVID-19 was fair, impartial, and free of alternative influence.”

The date of Fauci’s alleged off-the-books visit to CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., is not mentioned in Wenstrup’s letter to HHS Inspector General Christi Grimm. 

“The American people deserve the truth — to know the origins of the virus and whether there was a concerted effort by public health authorities to suppress the lab leak theory for political or national security purposes,” Wenstrup argues, demanding information related to the “movements of Dr. Fauci throughout the pandemic.”

Specifically, Wenstrup seeks documents and communications between HHS, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease and the US Marshals Service – assigned to protect Fauci – regarding the former White House coronavirus czar’s admittance or entry into any CIA owned, operated, or occupied buildings. 

“In addition to these documents, we request you make [HHS] Special Agent Brett Rowland available for a voluntary transcribed interview at a date to be determined,” Wenstrup adds. 

The new allegations come after a senior-level CIA officer-turned-whistleblower alleged to Congress earlier this month that the intelligence agency offered to pay off six analysts in order to bury their findings that COVID-19 most likely leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China.

The analysts, who found SARS-CoV-2 likely originated in a Wuhan lab, were allegedly asked to report that the virus jumped from animals to humans, according to Wenstrup and Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio). 

A seventh analyst, the most senior, was the lone member of the team to believe COVID-19 originated through zoonosis, according to the lawmakers. 

The US intelligence community declassified its 10-page report on COVID origins in June, which found “biosafety concerns” and “genetic engineering” taking place at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, but most of its “agencies assess that SARS-CoV-2 was not genetically engineered.”

The CIA and one other intelligence agency “remain unable to determine the precise origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, as both hypotheses rely on significant assumptions or face challenges with conflicting reporting,” it says.