Rand Paul Claims FBI Refuses to Hand Over Documents Unlocking Origins of COVID-19 – But Trump Could Change That

The federal government has been quietly reviewing a stack of documents about dangerous gain-of-function biological research — and Senator Rand Paul says it’s failing to cough them up, despite it being in the public interest.

“What we found is that there is a wealth of information about dangerous research gathered in one place,” Paul (R-Tenn.) told The Post in an exclusive interview.

He says these files could be the key to unlocking how exactly COVID-19 started in Wuhan, China, and how U.S. funds could be involved, and he’s hopeful the new Trump administration will help.

“We are approaching the beginning of the real investigation because in January we think, with a friendly government, we will get all this information,” he added.

Documents reveal Since 2012, the U.S. government has been collecting information about dangerous research practices, including gain-of-function research — the practice of amplifying the active part of viruses and making them more dangerous — to study them.

Paul’s office was tipped off by a whistleblower that the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) has known about these reports for years.

The information is collected and reviewed biannually under a policy called US Government Policy of Oversight of Life Sciences Dual Use Research of Concern.

A document about the policy says its purpose is to collect information about “research in the life sciences that… could be directly misapplied to pose a significant threat with broad potential consequences to public health and safety… or national security.” ”

For Paul, it’s a recognition that public health officials were aware that controversial research practices like gain-of-function were potentially dangerous — long before the COVID-19 pandemic emerged.

Many experts have speculated that COVID-19 may be the result of gain-of-function research conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

This became even worse when it emerged that US money had been given to the laboratory. The National Institutes of Health gave EcoHealth Alliance a $4 million grant for bat coronavirus research at the Wuhan lab, a House committee investigation finds.

“Many people claim that EcoHealth Alliance conducted gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. That is absolutely not true,” says EcoHealth Alliance said in a statement about the accusations.

“EHA and its sub-winner, Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), studied bat coronaviruses that have never been shown to infect humans.”

It is currently unknown whether documents on that specific grant have been collected and reviewed under the policy, but Paul thinks it is entirely possible: ‘Here’s the question: if they think it’s dangerous enough that they send it to the White House so they can monitor it Has the Wuhan study been sent?”

If so, the trove of documents could definitively reveal the origins of COVID-19 — and which of the U.S. health officials approved funding research in Wuhan.

On Monday Paul sent letters to White House OSTP Director Arati Prabhakar, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan And President Biden.

The OSTP did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.

He requested unredacted copies of “any classified reporting” submitted for institutional oversight of Life Sciences Dual Use Research of Concern. He also warned them to keep all relevant documents and communications.

Paul, a doctor, has been sending letters to dozens of government agencies and the White House for years demanding documents that could contain clues to the origins of COVID-19.

“It was the opposite of whoever worked with us,” he said. “We always get very little. There are huge documents of 250 pages, but everything is redacted.”

Paul believes government agencies may be so opaque in an attempt to cover up culpability in dangerous research.

“We know the investigation (in Wuhan) has been reviewed,” Paul said. “What I’ve always wanted from the beginning is: I want the discussion… Show us the discussion. That’s not secret, that’s not secret, it’s not like nuclear bombs or anything.”

Paul also hopes the documents collected can show whether former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, participated in the research funding signing in Wuhan.

“It’s not just about blame,” Paul said of his crusade for documents. “I want to see what is broken in the safety process to oversee this, and this is an argument why we need legislation to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”

He introduced The Risky Research Review Act in July 2024, which would establish an independent Life Sciences Research Security Board within the executive branch to oversee high-risk research to prevent another pandemic.

Now that he has identified the potential gold mine of information, he is confident that the Trump administration will be more receptive to his requests to finally get to the bottom of what happened.

“We’re hopeful that we’ll get everything, and so I think we’re about to find out what happened with COVID,” Paul added.