(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The House Select Committee on the Coronavirus Pandemic wrote to FBI Director Chris Wray on Friday, asking why one of his special agents is in touch with Ralph Baric, the epidemiology professor at the University of North Carolina, who has been described in legal disputes as a “close collaborator with the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”
The Select Committee told Wray that it requested unclassified documents about the bureau’s investigation into the origins of COVID-19.
The FBI is one of the few agencies to determine that the disease leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. However, the FBI apparently doesn’t want to share details of its investigation with Congress.
“We have yet to receive unclassified documents responsive to this request,” the Select Committee said to Wray in its letter.
The committee further questioned why the FBI is in contact with Baric, who’s known for vigorously arguing that COVID was a natural disease and not man-made.
“Since the Select Subcommittee’s first letter, we have gathered new facts and information. Based on documents in possession of the Select Subcommittee, it has come to our attention that Special Agent [REDACTED] was in direct and ongoing communication with Dr. Ralph Baric, a professor at the University of North Carolina (UNC) and renowned corona-virologist,” the Select Committee said.
“This communication was not just regarding threats Dr. Baric was receiving but also the substance of the origin debate and how UNC was responding to numerous North Carolina Freedom of Information Act requests.”
The FOIA requests mentioned by the Select Committee refer to an ongoing lawsuit U.S. Right To Know has against UNC over its COVID-related records. The group’s lawsuit, which is ongoing, has already revealed that Baric and other U.S. scientists downplayed their connections to the Wuhan Institute of Virology when they sought funding from the Pentagon.
Reacting to the Select Committee’s disclosures, U.S. Right To Know President Gary Ruskin also expressed alarm at the communication between Baric and the feds.
U.S. Right to Know has filed 15 North Carolina Public Records Law requests with the University of North Carolina about the work of Ralph Baric possibly related to the origins of Covid-19. Why was the FBI interested in how UNC was responding to public records requests on this… https://t.co/o2X8Zqr6RJ
— Gary Ruskin (@garyruskin) February 16, 2024
“U.S. Right to Know has filed 15 North Carolina Public Records Law requests with the University of North Carolina about the work of Ralph Baric possibly related to the origins of Covid-19,” Ruskin said. “Why was the FBI interested in how UNC was responding to public records requests on this topic?”
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
