WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Mike Gallagher (R-WI) today released the following statement after documents obtained by
The Intercept showed Dr. Anthony Fauci has lied for months about NIAID’s support for gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).
“On May 12, I argued that Dr. Fauci had not been forthcoming about the U.S. government’s support for gain-of-function research at the WIV. These documents are a smoking gun that indicate he not only failed to be forthcoming, but that he also lied to the American people about his organization’s support for this risky research.
“Thanks to grant reports written by Peter Daszak, we now know that U.S. taxpayer dollars supported research that made a virus at the WIV stronger than the original, naturally-occurring virus. This meets the very threshold for gain-of-function research that Dr. Fauci outlined in a letter to me in July. He has repeatedly lied before Congress and the American people and should immediately resign. But his resignation is not enough. Congress must also conduct a thorough investigation into this research and the way in which these grants were issued to ensure no bureaucrat is able to hide behind lawyerly definitions and skirt regulations like this again.”
Background:
On May 5, Rep. Gallagher
sent a letter to Dr. Fauci that demanded answers about U.S. taxpayer-funded research at the WIV.
On May 12, Rep. Gallagher
posted a video that outlined how Dr. Fauci had not been forthcoming in an exchange with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) regarding NIAID’s support for gain-of-function research at the WIV.
In July, Dr. Fauci
responded to Rep. Gallagher’s May 5 letter and said that the NIAID-funded studies at the WIV “did not propose to manipulate the viruses in a way that would increase transmissibility or pathogenicity.”
This week,
documents obtained by The Intercept showed that experiments funded by NIAID made a coronavirus at the WIV more pathogenetic than the original virus that occurred in nature, directly contradicting the letter Dr. Fauci sent Rep. Gallagher.
Click
HERE to watch Rep. Gallagher discuss these documents with Brian Kilmeade on Tucker Carlson Tonight.
