A congressional oversight subcommittee released the results of a two-year probe into the Covid-19 pandemic Monday, stating that the Department of Justice opened a criminal investigation related to the pandemic’s origins.
The 520-page report from the House Oversight Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, under the leadership of Republican Kentucky Rep. Brad Wenstrup, concluded that U.S.-based nonprofit, EcoHealth Alliance facilitated gain-of-function research with taxpayer dollars in Wuhan, China, preceding the outbreak of the pandemic. The oversight subcommittee also found that the DOJ has formed a criminal grand jury to investigate EcoHealth Alliance’s “pandemic-era activities.”
“EcoHealth was subject to numerous federal investigations regarding both its potential role in the COVID-19 pandemic, but also multiple accusations surrounding violated federal grant policies. The outcomes of most of these investigations are public,” the report states. “However, the Select Subcommittee discovered that DOJ was also investigating the origins of COVID-19. The specific details of the investigation are unknown but, based on documents, it appears the DOJ’s investigation involves EcoHealth’s role in the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The DOJ has refrained from commenting on its investigation into the pandemic’s origins and EcoHealth Alliance, and the report leaves open the possibility that the agency’s investigation is ongoing.
EcoHealth Alliance is a longtime partner of the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) and provided $600,000 in the form of National Institutes of Health subgrants to the Wuhan lab between 2014 and 2019 to study bat-based coronaviruses, the Daily Caller previously reported. The research nonprofit led by Dr. Peter Daszak misled the NIH regarding the WIV’s gain-of-function research funded in part by U.S. taxpayer dollars and failed to adequately monitor the Chinese entity’s gain-of-function experiments, according to the report.
The oversight subcommittee has also accused Daszak of obstructing the panel’s investigation into EcoHealth Alliance and providing “false statements” to subcommittee staff.
“EcoHealth President Dr. Peter Daszak obstructed the Select Subcommittee’s investigation by providing publicly available information, instructing his staff to reduce the scope and pace of productions, and doctoring documents before releasing them to the public,” the report states. “Further, Dr. Daszak provided false statements to Congress.”
The DOJ subpoenaed EcoHealth Alliance’s communications with Dr. Zhengli Shi, senior virologist for the WIV, according to documents obtained by the select committee. The oversight subcommittee was unable to determine if the agency has issued additional subpoenas for EcoHealth Alliance’s communications with other entities.
Emails obtained by the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic revealing the existence of a DOJ grand jury investigation involving EcoHealth Alliance.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) debarred the WIV for a 10-year period beginning in July 2023, an action that prevents the nonprofit from receiving government grants. The agency also proposed the debarment of EcoHealth and Daszak in May 2024 but has yet to finalize those decisions, according to the subcommittee report.
The United States Agency for International Development and National Science Foundation also suspended grants to EcoHealth Alliance this summer following the HHS’s decision to order a government-wide stoppage of funding to the nonprofit.
EcoHealth Alliance refused to confirm or deny the existence of a DOJ grand jury investigation into the nonprofit, according to the report’s authors.
“Regarding your inquiry about the DOJ, we decline generally to provide any information about the existence or nonexistence of any investigation other than the SSCP’s own,” the nonprofit’s lawyers told staff in an email. “For the avoidance of doubt this response should not be read to confirm or deny the existence of any investigation.”
The DOJ and EcoHealth Alliance did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.
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