FBI director confirms COVID ‘most likely’ leaked from Wuhan lab and claims China is ‘thwarting and obfuscating’ U.S. investigations – days after Energy Department revealed shock report into virus origin
- FBI Director Christopher Wray commented for the first time that the FBI concluded that COVID originated from a lab in Wuhan, China
- Wray said the virus was likely the result of a lab leak and that the Chinese government has worked to undermine his agency’s work
- The FBI’s report concludes the same thing as the Energy Department’s latest probe into the virus, but the White House cannot come to a consensus
FBI Director Christopher Wray confirmed the agency’s conclusion that the COVID pandemic was probably the result of a lab leak in Wuhan, China.
Commenting for the first time on Tuesday about the FBI’s judgment, Wray reiterated his agency’s initial findings from 2021, adding that the Chinese government has allegedly worked to undermine the damning results.
‘The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan,’ Wray told Fox News. ‘Here you are talking about a potential leak from a Chinese government-controlled lab.’
Wray’s comments come as the White House continues to struggle to come to a ‘consensus’ on how the virus originated despite a Energy Department probe coming to the same conclusion as the FBI.
FBI Director Christopher Wray commented for the first time that the FBI concluded that COVID originated from a lab in Wuhan, China
Wray said the virus was likely the result of a lab leak and that the Chinese government has worked to undermine his agency’s work
The FBI first came to the conclusion in 2021, saying it had ‘moderate confidence’ that the pandemic that gripped the world was a result of an accidental leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Wray said the work was conducted by top experts in the FBI and US government who specialize in monitoring potential outbreaks.
Despite the FBI’s conclusion, Wray added that Beijing has continuously tried to undercut the US government’s work.
‘I will just make the observation that the Chinese government, it seems to me, has been doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate the work here, the work that we’re doing, the work that our US government and close foreign partners are doing, and that’s unfortunate for everybody,’ he told Fox.
One such case occured earlier this week when China‘s foreign ministry pushed back at the Energy Department’s analysis that the outbreak likely originated with a leak from a Chinese research lab in Wuhan.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning accused unnamed parties of trying to smear or vilify China – even amid continued calls for China to provide full access to information from its Wuhan facility.
‘Certain parties should stop rehashing the “lab leak” narrative, stop smearing China and stop politicizing origins-tracing,’ she said during a press briefing Monday
She talked up Chinese cooperation with investigating agencies, although in 2021 China rejected a World Health Organization effort to hold a second phase of its investigation. The group has denied abandoning its inquiry amid China’s obstacles.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning blasted what she termed ‘politicization’ of theories on the origins of COVID-19, after an Energy Department analysis that pointed to possibility of a leak from the Wuhan lab
This is a developing story.
