Spy bosses silenced Defense Department, FBI scientists from briefing Biden on COVID lab leak evidence

Spy chiefs “silenced” researchers in the Defense Department and FBI who discovered strong evidence that COVID-19 most likely leaked from a Chinese lab, The Post has learned.As a result, their findings were kept out of an August 2021 report to President Biden on the origins of the global pandemic.That report concluded that the virus behind COVID “was probably not genetically engineered.”After the pandemic erupted in Wuhan, China, three scientists from the Defense Intelligence Agency began trying to figure out exactly where it came from — whether SARS-CoV-2 jumped from bats into humans, or whether the virus man-made and came from a lab accident.The “zoonotic origin” theory was backed by powerful members of the public health establishment, including Dr.

Anthony Fauci, and questions about a possible “lab leak” were repeatedly dismissed as a conspiracy theory.But the researchers’ analysis compiled dozens of data points in favor of a lab leak — compared with a “paucity of evidence supporting the natural origin theory,” a source familiar with their investigation told The Post.The analysis was conducted by John Hardham, Robert Cutlip and Jean-Paul Chretien, three scientists in the Defense Intelligence Agency’s National Center for Medical Intelligence, which is tasked with examining potential biological weapons threats and dangerous infectious diseases.Among their damning findings: Rather than amplifying these findings, they were all but ignored as Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines was preparing her report on COVID origins — which Biden ordered in May 2021.“The scientists who had the subject matter expertise were silenced,” the source said, noting that Biden and others remained “completely unwitting” about the evidence that SARS-CoV-2 likely leaked out of a lab.The spy chiefs further forbade the scientists from sharing the information with Congress — even after Sen.

Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) expressly requested them in ...