Newly released Senate documents show the FBI intervened to block U.S. Customs and Border Protection from stopping and questioning EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak as part of an investigation into his activities in China and his participation in a 2021 World Health Organization mission investigating the origins of SARS-CoV-2.
CBP’s National Targeting Center classified Daszak as an “extremely high person of interest” ahead of his scheduled Feb. 5, 2021, arrival at New York’s JFK Airport. The agency cited his more than 15 years of collaboration with Wuhan Institute of Virology researcher Zhengli Shi and his role as principal investigator on NIH-funded bat coronavirus research.
CBP prepared questions about the purpose of Daszak’s Jan. 4–7 travel, his selection for the WHO team, his contacts with WIV, Chinese CDC facilities and other Chinese officials, and the specific areas and people the team encountered during its visits. Agents also wanted to know whether he was carrying, collected or mailed biological samples to the United States, what materials he took to China, and who he communicated with at WIV, how often and about what. The agency planned a Tactical Terrorism Response Team examination, including a review of media, with the search level to be determined by the port of entry.
The documents referenced Daszak’s co-authorship of research with Shi and Ralph Baric involving WIV1, a bat SARS-like coronavirus reported to bind to and infect human cells. They also cited research intended or expected to increase pathogen transmissibility or virulence, federal funding received by Daszak and EcoHealth Alliance—including DHS contracts involving chemical and biological threats—and 19 publications identified in a grant search, many authored by Shi.
The CBP documents further referenced NIH efforts to have Daszak retrieve the original type specimen used by the Wuhan lab for genetic analysis and provide information about his collaboration with WIV, including cell-phone data. Daszak reportedly called the requirements “outrageous” and appeared unlikely to comply.
But on Feb. 2—three days before Daszak’s scheduled arrival—the FBI’s New York Field Office asked CBP not to stop him. CBP subsequently rescinded its inspection request, with records stating that Daszak “may be of interest to the FBI.” The Senate documents also state that “much of the funding DASZAK receives is put towards gain of function research,” according to the committee.
View the documents here.
