DOJ Investigated Origins of COVID-19: House Report

The P4 laboratory (L) at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China, on April 17, 2020. Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) probed the origins of COVID-19 according to a new report from the U.S. House of Representatives.

“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 report states.

The DOJ empaneled a grand jury as part of the investigation, according to emails obtained by the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.

One email was sent by a lawyer for EcoHealth Alliance, the nonprofit, to Peter Daszak, the nonprofit’s president. The Feb. 6, 2023, missive that summarized legal updates said in part, “DoJ subpoena for genetic sequences, docs—almost complete.”

Another email from that day to Daszak included a musing about whether to skip informing lawmakers about other government inquiries.

“I suppose we can always recite those if we get any pushback on a reasonable extension, but I don’t expect that, given the non-compulsory nature of the current request,” EcoHealth’s lawyer wrote. “Especially on the Executive Branch front, where the DOJ grand jury investigation seems so far to remain nonpublic, I think it would be better just to say we’re acting as promptly as possible under the circumstances without inviting inquiry into other demands for info.”

The DOJ and EcoHealth did not respond to requests for comment.

Congressional subcommittee staff members asked EcoHealth in November to confirm the existence of a DOJ grand jury investigation. EcoHealth declined.

“Regarding your inquiry about the DOJ, we decline generally to provide any information about the existence or nonexistence of any investigation other than the [subcommittee’s] own. For the avoidance of doubt this response should not be read to confirm or deny the existence of any investigation,” an EcoHealth lawyer told the panel.

An EcoHealth lawyer told the subcommittee later in November that the investigation was not into EcoHealth or Daszak. The subcommittee had previously urged the DOJ to probe EcoHealth and Daszak.

A third email obtained by lawmakers showed the DOJ sought emails between EcoHealth and Shi Zhengli, a scientist who works at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China.

The first COVID-19 cases were recorded in Wuhan.

The subcommittee report, released after two years of work on COVID-19, concluded that COVID-19 likely originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

EcoHealth used money from the U.S. National Institutes of Health for the Wuhan based institute to study bat coronaviruses.

The U.S. government earlier this year suspended funding to both EcoHealth and Daszak over the funds, finding that the group did not adequately monitor the lab’s compliance with terms and conditions in the U.S. grant. The government also suspended funding to the Wuhan lab.