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Press Release Published: May 7, 2024

Classified State Department Documents Credibly Suggest COVID-19 Lab Leak, Wenstrup Pushes for Declassification

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WASHINGTON — The Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic recently reviewed classified U.S. Department of State (State Department) documents that credibly suggest COVID-19 originated from a lab related accident in Wuhan, China. The documents also strongly convey that the Chinese Communist Party attempted to cover-up the lab leak and that the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) maintains a relationship with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) is requesting the State Department rapidly declassify this information and share the truth about the origins of COVID-19 with the American people.

These documents were previously released in an unclassified and highly redacted Freedom of Information Act production, first obtained and reported on by U.S. Right to Know — a nonprofit working to expose government failures that threaten public health. The redacted documents showed numerous, highly suggestive subject lines including:

  • “Initial Outbreak Could Have Been Contained in China if Beijing Had Not Covered it Up”
  • “Xi Lied to Obfuscate His Role in the Cover-Up”
  • “PLA Contractor Involved in the Construction of the Wuhan Institute of Virology”
  • “PLA Presence at WIV Continued After Construction Completed”
  • “Official Chinese Websites Show Robust Cooperation between WIV and PLA”
  • “Cyber Evidence of PLA Shadow Labs at WIV and Bioengineering University”

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.

“We write to you today to request that you immediately take steps to declassify this information such that the American people have a more complete picture of the government’s evidence regarding the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic,” wrote Chairman Wenstrup.

View the highly redacted State Department documents here and here.

Read Chairman Wenstrup’s letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken here.

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