Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, said classified State Department documents “credibly suggest” that COVID-19 originated from a “lab-related accident” in China.
The classified documents the committee received from the State Department “contain highly pertinent information that credibly suggests” three conclusions, one of which is that “COVID-19 originated from a lab-related accident in Wuhan, China,” according to the letter.
China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) has long been suspected as the source of COVID-19. The institute, which houses a biosafety level 4 (P4) facility, is located a short distance from a local wet market, where clusters of infection cases were first reported in late 2019.
The classified documents also suggested the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) “acted to prevent, and in fact obstructed, a fulsome investigation into these matters,” according to the letter.
Mr. Wenstrup said the documents suggested a “seamless relationship between the WIV and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.”
“As mounting evidence continues to point to a lab related accident in Wuhan, China as the likely origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, safely removing these superfluous redactions is a step towards transparency and accountability,” reads a statement from a press release announcing Mr. Wenstrup’s letter.
Mr. Wenstrup shared two “highly redacted FOIA versions” of the classified documents.
One of the documents, dated July 2020, shows several subheadings over blacked-out sections. One heading says, “Initial Outbreak Could Have Been Contained in China if Beijing Had Not Covered It Up,” while another says, “Who Ordered the Cover Up? The Signs Point to Beijing, not Local Officials.”
The second document, dated August 2020, shows the relationship between WIV and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Two subheadings read “Cyber Evidence of PLA Shadow Lab at WIV” and “WIV Personnel with Possible PLA Ties.”
“Despite the WIV presenting itself as a civilian institution, the United States has determined that the WIV has collaborated on publications and secret projects with China’s military,” the fact sheet reads.
“The American people deserve to see the information that is hidden under these redactions,” Mr. Wenstrup wrote. “We write to you today to request that you immediately take steps to declassify this information.”
Mr. Wenstrup requested a staff-level briefing before May 14 and said that he had originally requested a briefing on April 24, but the State Department said it could not support a briefing then.
“All agencies continue to assess that both a natural and laboratory-associated origin remain plausible hypotheses to explain the first human infection,” the 10-page declassified report states.