The president of a non-profit tied to coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology is being accused of obstructing congressional investigators.
The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic wrote a letter on Thursday accusing embattled EcoHeath Alliance (EHA) president Dr. Peter Daszak of intentionally obstructing its investigation into research at the Wuhan lab. The letter was directed to a doctor the committee believes to be Daszak’s publicist.
“The Select Subcommittee has documents suggesting Dr. Peter Daszak, President of EcoHealth, has been deliberately delaying and obstructing this investigation, and that he has employed you as a communications consultant to potentially further this obstruction,” subcommittee chairman Brad Wenstrup (R., Ohio.) said in the letter to Jeffrey Sturchio, a businessman and healthcare nonprofit executive.
Last month, Daszak cc’d Sturchio on an email to his colleagues where he appeared to suggest using delay tactics and criticized the subcommittee’s investigation.
“Great strategy Jerry. Each day of delay helps,” Daszak said before suggesting National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases senior official Dr. David Morens’s lawyers were using delay tactics to push back his public testimony.
“We’re getting continued tightening of the screws from the SSCP — we responded to their demands for an outrageous dump of emails and documents before my hearing, giving them a few docs, but letting them know that most are already in the NIH FOIA library,” Daszak continued, with a link to the National Institutes of Health’s Freedom of Information Act database.
Daszak tried to “make sure they get enough material so that we can avoid a subpoena” and claimed the subcommittee’s investigation was “Stalinesque.”
Instead of producing documents ahead of his recent public testimony, Daszak sent a letter to the subcommittee with the NIH FOIA link. The subcommittee’s documents request included items not subject to FOIA requests, the letter to Sturchio notes.
“By providing a public link to a federal agency’s FOIA library, Dr. Daszak showed a complete disregard for the authority of Congress and the Committees’ constitutional oversight authority and our responsibility to the American people — the people who fund Dr. Daszak’s work. We are concerned you were involved in this obstructionist letter,” the letter to Sturchio asserts.
“When considering the clearly bad faith and dilatory motivations Dr. Daszak proudly shared with his colleagues, this response letter, on which we suspect you advised EcoHealth, it is imperative upon the Select Subcommittee to evaluate whether Dr. Daszak has obstructed this investigation in other ways.”
Congressional investigators are requesting Sturchio turn over all documents and communications with EHA related to the Wuhan lab and responses to congressional activity. They are also seeking documents and communications between Sturchio and the Department of Health and Human Services, including NIAID and NIH.
The email was also cited in a subpoena cover letter sent to Morens on Wednesday when the subcommittee subpoenaed him to testify publicly. The subcommittee similarly accused Morens of obstructing its investigation. Morens is a close friend of Daszak’s and a top advisor to former NIAID director Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is expected to testify publicly next month.
Daszak testified at the beginning of the month, and lawmakers from both parties grilled Daszak concerning his organization’s ties to the Wuhan lab and lack of transparency.
Throughout his testimony, Daszak strongly defended EHA’s transparency and the coronavirus research conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Right before Daszak’s testimony, the subcommittee released a report recommending the U.S. government stop funding EHA’s research and the Justice Department open a criminal investigation into Daszak.
“We’ve come to the conclusion in a bipartisan fashion that Dr. Daszak and EcoHealth Alliance should no longer receive one penny for any type of research forever,” Wenstrup told NR after Daszak’s testimony.
When reached for comment, Sturchio told NR he would be responding to the subcommittee’s request. EHA declined to comment.