Congress members send letter to federal agencies demanding answers regarding EcoHealth Alliance DARPA proposal

Reps. Madison Cawthorn, Matt Gaetz, Bill Posey, Diana Harshbarger, Lisa McClain, and Randy Weber sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, and Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra demanding answers as to the "true origin of the Coronavirus."

"Recently, new information has come to light, detailing just how this may have occurred and by what methods a cover-up may have evolved," the letter states.

"These documents appear to substantiate not only Senator Paul’s — and others’ — critiques of Dr. Fauci, but also the cloud of suspicion that the frankly unbelievable bureaucratic answers to simple questions have generated over the last two years," it continues.

The letter references a report, obtained by Project Veritas, that stated that EcoHealth Alliance approached DARPA in March 2018, looking to obtain funding for Project Defuse to conduct gain of function research of coronaviruses from bats.

According to Project Veritas, the proposal was rejected by DARPA because it violated a gain of function research moratorium. Additionally, there were safety concerns.

According to the documents, the NIAID, under the direction of Dr. Fauci, proceeded with the research at the Wuhan Virology Lab in China and at several sites other across the US.

Fauci has repeated under oath during several Congressional hearings that the NIH and NAIAD have not been involved in gain of function research with the EcoHealth Alliance program.

The report was allegedly "hidden in a top-secret share drive."

The letter from the Representatives demands a number of answers the the letter recipients, including whether the DARPA report was truly hidden in such a fashion, what the DARPA protocol is for determining what is classified and what is not, and "who at DARPA is responsible for withholding release the original report detailing the issues with the proposed EcoHealth Alliance project?"

The letter also asks whether Fauci and/or the NIAID funded the project after concerns were raised by DARPA, whether the definition of gain-of-function was changed, if there were attempts to suppress potential curatives, and if "Dr. Fauci party to or co-conspirator with any effort to mislead the American public."

The letter reflects similar arguments made by Sen. Ron Johnson, who asked similar questions in a letter obtained by Project Veritas.

"According to the Major’s disclosure, EcoHealth Alliance (EcoHealth), in conjunction with the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), submitted a proposal in March 2018 to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) regarding SARS-CoVs. The proposal included a program, called DEFUSE, that sought to use a novel chimeric SARS-CoV spike protein to inoculate bats against SARS-CoVs. Although DARPA rejected the proposal, the disclosure alleges that EcoHealth ultimately carried out the DEFUSE proposal until April 2020 through the National Institutes of Health and National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases," the letter states.

These letters come as Sen. Rand Paul once again grilled Fauci during a Senate hearing, accusing him of discrediting doctors who believed the lab leak theory.

"In an email exchange with Dr. [Francis] Collins you conspire and I quote here directly from the email to create a quick and devastating published takedown of three prominent epidemiologist from Harvard, Oxford and Stanford. (Apparently, there's a lot of fringe epidemiologist at Harvard, Oxford and Stanford.) And you quote in the email that they are from Dr. Collins and you you agree that they are fringe. Immediately as this takedown ethic," Paul critiqued.

"A published takedown, though," Paul continued, "you know, doesn't exactly conjure up the image of a dispassionate scientist. Instead of engaging them on the merits you and Dr. Collins sought to smear them is fringe and take them down. And not in journals, in lay press. This is not only antithetical to the scientific method; it's cheap politics and it's reprehensible, Dr. Fauci. Do you really think it's appropriate to use your $420,000 salary to attack scientists that disagree with you?"

"I think in usual fashion," Fauci said, "Senator, you are distorting everything about me."