Spy chiefs allegedly silenced US defense department and FBI researchers who uncovered evidence supporting the theory that Covid-19 leaked from a Chinese lab, sources told The Post. These findings were excluded from an August 2021 report presented to President Joe Biden, which concluded the virus was “probably not genetically engineered.”
Key findings suppressed
Three scientists—John Hardham, Robert Cutlip, and Jean-Paul Chretien—investigated the origins of Covid-19 and uncovered compelling data favoring the lab leak theory, including:
- A spike protein feature aiding human transmission, mirroring techniques described in a 2008
Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) study. - A Chinese military researcher applied for a Covid-19 vaccine patent weeks after the virus was sequenced in 2020, later dying under mysterious circumstances.
- Evidence that WIV researchers collaborated with US scientists to engineer viruses undetectable as man-made.
Despite the findings, intelligence officials excluded them from the report to Biden and barred the researchers from sharing their analysis with Congress or the FBI, the latter being the only agency to conclude with confidence that a lab leak was the likely origin.
Silenced expertise
“The scientists with subject matter expertise were silenced,” a source familiar with the investigation claimed, adding that Biden and senior officials were unaware of the withheld evidence. Additionally, federal grant documents detailing a “blueprint” for engineering viruses like SARS-CoV-2 were improperly classified, according to whistleblower Lt. Col. Joseph Murphy.
Renewed calls for transparency
FBI scientist Jason Bannan, whose team supported the lab leak theory, criticized the lack of transparency in the intelligence community’s findings. “What ended up on the cutting-room floor needs to be re-examined,” Bannan told The Wall Street Journal.
The suppressed findings have reignited demands for a deeper probe into Covid-19’s origins, as the virus has claimed over 1.2 million American lives since 2019.