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The FBI intervened to prevent U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents from questioning “virus hunter” Peter Daszak, Ph.D., on a return trip from Wuhan, China, according to documents released this week by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).
The documents show that in February 2021, Daszak, a key ally to Dr. Anthony Fauci and then-president of the EcoHealth Alliance, traveled to Wuhan as part of a World Health Organization (WHO) investigation into the origins of COVID-19.
CBP planned to stop and question Daszak on his return to the U.S. that month. But in an email dated Feb. 2, 2021 — three days before Daszak was scheduled to arrive in New York — a CBP Joint Terrorism Task Force liaison wrote, “Please be advised FBI New York requested we do not stop the subject.”
The CBP Tactical Terrorism Response Team was prepared to question Daszak about the business he conducted in China, his contacts at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and whether he collected or was carrying any samples of viruses or other pathogens.
One document states that CBP viewed Daszak as “an extremely high person of interest” due to his longstanding ties with the Wuhan laboratory.
A Jan. 11, 2021, CBP email flagged Daszak’s participation in the WHO’s team investigating the pandemic’s origins in Wuhan as a potential “conflict of interest.”
A Feb. 2, 2021, email noted that much of the funding Daszak was receiving was “put toward gain of function research.”
Notably, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security email contained within the documents, which provided background information on Daszak’s research activity, referenced an article The Defender published in January 2021.
Paul released the documents as part of his ongoing congressional investigation into the origins of COVID-19. In a post on X earlier this week, he said the documents challenge the narrative that a lab leak was implausible.
“The American people can finally judge the evidence for themselves,” Paul wrote.
The American people can finally judge the evidence for themselves.https://t.co/t2kKO8eQlp
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) July 22, 2026
Speaking to The National Desk on Tuesday, Paul said the documents showed that figures in the federal government “wanted to protect” the narrative that COVID-19 originated in, and escaped from, a lab, so they “used whatever means necessary to do it.”
“It’s no surprise that they would use the law enforcement enterprise to achieve that,” Paul said.
Jeffrey Tucker, president and founder of the Brownstone Institute, said the documents confirm the “worst versions of what we’ve suspected” and provide “more empirical evidence than ever” of a concerted effort by figures in the federal government to conceal a lab leak in Wuhan.
“There was a high-level plan to protect the virus creators as part of a longer-term
scheme to deploy both pathogens and countermeasures, likely for the purpose of political manipulation, as incredible as that sounds,” Tucker said.
NIH asked Daszak to bring SARS-CoV-2 specimen to the U.S.
The documents contained evidence that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) asked Daszak to obtain the original type specimen of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, and bring it to the U.S.
According to those who believe COVID-19 leaked from a lab, the virus was likely produced through gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab, and later escaped.
Gain-of-function research increases the virulence or transmissibility of viruses and is often used in vaccine development.
Fox News reported that Daszak and EcoHealth Alliance had collaborated with the Wuhan lab for over 15 years, including with the lab’s lead researcher, Shi Zhengli, Ph.D., widely known as the “bat lady.”
Daszak was also principal investigator on NIH grants that funded bat coronavirus research at the Wuhan lab.
The documents were released just days before Fauci is set to testify before the U.S. Congress on July 29, as part of Paul’s investigation.
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The document release also came a month after two NIH researchers with ties to Daszak and EcoHealth Alliance were arrested and charged with smuggling mpox samples into the U.S.
Documents Paul released last month revealed that Fauci received a U.S. intelligence report in August 2021 suggesting that SARS-CoV-2 was developed in Chinese and U.S. labs as a bat vaccine, that it later leaked from the Wuhan lab and that it contained characteristics that would make it resistant to mRNA vaccines.
In May, a CIA whistleblower testified before Congress that Fauci led a multi-agency cover-up of COVID-19’s origins and that “Dr. Fauci’s role in the cover-up was intentional.”
In 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) suspended all funding for EcoHealth Alliance after finding the organization failed to monitor risky coronavirus experiments.
Last year, Daszak became president of Nature.Health.Global — a nonprofit organization that performs research on public health and pandemic prevention. The group employs Dr. David Morens, a former top aide to Fauci.
In April, a federal grand jury indicted Morens on charges related to conspiracy to hide federal records on COVID-19’s origins.
Related articles in The Defender
- Rand Paul Issues Subpoena Forcing Fauci to Testify Under Oath
- Virologist Linked to Fauci Under FBI Investigation for Smuggling Dangerous Pathogens Into U.S.
- Smoking Gun? Documents Suggest Fauci Knew COVID Was Created in Wuhan Lab, and mRNA Vaccines Wouldn’t Work
- CIA Whistleblower: Fauci Led Multi-Agency Cover-Up of COVID Lab Leak Evidence
- ‘Profound Abuse of Trust’: Former Fauci Aide Indicted for Conspiracy to Hide Government Records on COVID Origins
- ‘For Safety of Citizens Worldwide’: HHS Suspends Government Funding for EcoHealth Alliance
