Biden Misses Deadline for Declassifying Intelligence on Covid Pandemic Origins
The deadline passed on Sunday without the declassification happening.
Back in March this year, Biden signed a bipartisan bill that directed the federal government to declassify as much intelligence as possible about the origins of covid.
The legislation, which passed both the House and Senate without dissent, directs the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to declassify intelligence related to China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology. It cites “potential links” between the research that was done there and the outbreak of Covid-19, which the World Health Organization declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020. The law allows for redactions to protect sensitive sources and methods.
U.S. intelligence agencies are divided over whether a lab leak or a spillover from animals is the likely source of the deadly virus. Experts say the true origin of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 1.1 million in the U.S. and millions more around the globe, may not be known for many years — if ever.
Recent revelations have identified Chinese scientists working at the Wuhan Institute of Virology as “patients zero” and have focused on poor biosafety practices that may have contributed to a lab leak zero. So, after years of being deemed a racist conspiracy theory, the lab leak origin is the theory that has sustained the test of time and evidence.
Thus, there is now a great deal of interest in the covid origin material that is slated to be declassified. However, the Biden team has missed the deadline. The deadline passed on Sunday without the declassification happening.
Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), the chairman of the select committee on China who sponsored the bill in the House, told the Washington Examiner that “Congress overwhelmingly passed legislation requiring the administration to declassify all relevant intelligence around the origins of COVID-19.” The congressman said, “Biden cannot continue to ignore this overwhelming bipartisan consensus” and that “Congress must use every tool at its disposal to enforce this law and ensure the president makes this information available to the public.”
The law instructed Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines to “declassify any and all information relating to potential links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the origin” of COVID-19, including intelligence on the “activities performed by the Wuhan Institute of Virology with or on behalf of the People’s Liberation Army” and “coronavirus research or other related activities performed at the Wuhan Institute of Virology prior to the outbreak” of SARS-CoV-2.
The legislation also told the Biden administration to hand over any information on the “researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology who fell ill in autumn 2019.”
Senator Mike Braun (R-IN) offered his theory for the delay:
The White House is now overdue to declassify their COVID lab leak intel, and there is no ‘Secretary of State is meeting with Xi Jinping’ exception in the law President Biden signed.
We need to know the truth about how this pandemic started and China’s role in covering it up, and the White House must respect the text of the law passed unanimously in both chambers by the people’s representatives.
The White House is now overdue to declassify their COVID lab leak intel, and there is no ‘Secretary of State is meeting with Xi Jinping’ exception in the law President Biden signed.
We need to know the truth about how this pandemic started and China’s role in covering it up,…
— Senator Mike Braun (@SenatorBraun) June 20, 2023
Meanwhile, Democrat author and commenter Jamie Metzl offered a more mundane explanation on Fox News Channel:
I don’t know if there’s intent. The deadline was yesterday. Sunday, which was a day off. Today’s a federal holiday. If by the close of business tomorrow, Tuesday, nothing is out in the public, I think that’s when we should really say that something is wrong.”
BIDEN BEHIND SCHEDULE? JAMIE METZL ON WHY PRESIDENT BIDEN MISSED DEADLINE TO DECLASSIFY COVID ORIGIN/LAB LEAK DOCS. @BillHemmer: “Doesn’t it seem a little strange how you miss the deadline a day before Blinken’s meeting with Xi? Or does some intent strike you with that?… pic.twitter.com/PE4SZm7H1c
— America’s Newsroom (@AmericaNewsroom) June 19, 2023
Clearly, people are poised to pounce on the declassified material as soon as it is available…whenever Biden’s team chooses to honor the legislated deadline.
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Comments
Well, Sunday was a holiday, and Monday was a fake holiday, so…
“Biden misses deadline”
That’s because he’s a little “slow”. If he doesn’t come up for air soon, we might have to call the Coast Guard.
pedo joe will ignore it. What are they going to do? Censure him?
I would think it would be an impeachable offense under the “high crimes and misdemeanors” section of the Constitution. Abuse of power by a high-level public official is considered a high crime. I’d think this is an abuse of power, along with many other things. We won’t get into bribery right now.
Biden defies congress.
A more correct headline.
This is another instance of this admninistration breaking and refusing to enforce laws passed by Congress.
Get ready for all of the Biden Administration defenders to chant off in unison:
“Republicans pounce…..”
The impeachment for this gets filed in 3 … 2 … 1 ….
New rule: We don’t need to re-try any of the old peccadillos of The Apparatus, no matter how egregious. They’ve had time to circle the wagos anyway.
When there’s an impeachable offense touted on the Regime News, the impeachment gets filed the next business day.