Sen. Rand Paul Releases Document Trove Detailing Pre-Pandemic Biosecurity Breaches
New document release shows Customs and Border Patrol intercepted undeclared biological materials tied to this network of American and Chinese coronavirus researchers in 2018, and the FBI stopped the agency from intercepting a key covid researcher in 2021.
As my Legal Insurrection colleague Elizabeth Stauffer reported, Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky) has released a trove of information related to the 2020 COVID pandemic.
This move comes ahead of the July 29th U.S. Senate hearing focused on the origins of the pandemic, U.S. funding of coronavirus research in China, and allegations that Congress was misled. Elizabeth focused on Fauci’s egocentric ramblings and obfuscations of the pathogen’s real origins.
TBF: My team at @LegInsurrection used the term "godlet" to describe Fauci, showing we had among the most informative and accurate reports related to the covid pandemic. https://t.co/z8bUnHu3Oi
— Leslie Eastman ☥ (@Mutnodjmet) July 27, 2026
As if this information were not already extremely disturbing, Paul also shared documentation showing that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) intercepted undeclared biological materials linked to a U.S.–China coronavirus research network as early as 2018.
The documents, which include a Department of Homeland Security intelligence report, primarily focus on a network centered around University of Minnesota virologist Fang Li.
In the years leading up to the pandemic, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) intercepted undeclared biological materials tied to this network of American and Chinese coronavirus researchers centered around Li, whose lab has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Paul stated in a news release.
In April 2018, Zhengli Shi, a scientist at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), asked Li to have a student transport antibodies for SARS research from the United States back to China.
Li told Shi that was not a good idea, given the “current tension between the USA and China,” according to the documents. He suggested another scientist ship the antibodies instead.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has released a new batch of documents concerning the COVID-19 pandemic.
The records indicate U.S. officials intercepted undeclared biological materials linked to a U.S.–China coronavirus research network as early as 2018, allegedly to bypass regulatory…
— Spotlight on China (@spotlightoncn) July 27, 2026
In the fall of 2018, CBP stopped a shipment of a coronavirus that infects swine (porcine epidemic diarrhea virus) that landed at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport. As an added bonus, these vials were obtained from an official from China’s Academy of Military Medical Sciences.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers found the vials of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus and antibody genetic material on a courier, whose name was redacted, during an inspection at Detroit Metropolitan Airport on Nov. 28, 2018, according to the documents.
The courier was not authorized to carry the vials, which had been obscured in carry-on baggage with a combination of paper towels and wax film, officials said. The courier said that he was given the vials by Yusen Zhou, who worked for China’s Academy of Military Medical Sciences, and that the vials were intended for Fang Li, a researcher at the University of Minnesota who has co-written papers with Zhou.
Laboratory testing from DHS and the FBI confirmed that porcine epidemic diarrhea virus spike protein was in the vials, as well as partial immunoglobulin heavy chain precursor messenger ribonucleic acid.
Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus is a highly dangerous coronavirus that causes illnesses and deaths in swine.
In 2021, this same courier was stopped again, with undeclared vials and a laptop that belonged to someone else.
Perhaps the Detroit Metropolitan Airport is the gateway for Chinese smuggling of biological materials into this country? I have previously reported on several graduate students from China being detained for trying to sneak samples into the country, including one fungus that can be considered an agroterrorism weapon.
Legal Insurrection readers will remember the name Peter Daszak, as the head of EcoHealth Alliance was a key player in the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s coronavirus research.
Meanwhile, Senator Paul also released documents that show the FBI intervened and stopped CBP from searching and questioning Peter Daszak upon his return to the US from China at JFK airport in 2021 during the inept World Health Organization (WHO) investigation into the origins of the COVID pandemic.
The documents show that CBP’s National Targeting Center had flagged Daszak, President of EcoHealth Alliance, as an “extremely high person of interest” ahead of his arrival in the US, citing his more than 15 years of collaboration with the Wuhan Institute of Virology and his role as principal investigator on NIH grants funding bat coronavirus research in China, and that “much of the funding DASZAK receives is put towards gain of function research.”
The documents reveal that CBP had a series of questions they planned to ask Daszak when he landed and were going to search his media, until they were told to stand down by the FBI.
In an email dated 2/4/2021, a CBP official notifies others within CBP:
“Please be advised that FBI New York has requested we do not stop the subject below.”
BREAKING: @SenRandPaul, the Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, has just released internal federal documents which he says show that the FBI intervened and stopped CBP from searching and questioning Peter Daszak upon his return to the US from China at JFK airport… pic.twitter.com/dHHXpNwBhR
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) July 20, 2026
Looking at the latest batch of documents from Senator Paul, I think that while Fauci’s actions deserve scrutiny and he needs to face serious legal consequences, focusing on him alone misses the bigger picture.
The real long-term concern is the pattern of potentially biohazardous China-linked research activities and repeated breaches that allow biological materials to enter the U.S. unchecked.
If we are serious about national security, biosecurity, and public health, our attention should shift from personalities to the systemic risks emanating from China.
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Comments
By my back-of-the-envelope math, Fauci has killed three times as many people as Dr. Joseph Mengele.
And as of today, neither of them have been tried for their crimes against humanity.
I think it should be an imperative that he answer for what he has done before he sheds his mortal coil and descends to the nether world.
How poetic, Peter. Personally, I think we should hang his ass.
Rand Paul is on a mission. Bravo sir!
Big deal. Problem is they release this material and then nothing, I repeat, nothing ever happens to hold anyone responsible for their acts and actions. And really, what’s the point of releasing these documents when 17 whole pages are completely blacked out. Might as well not have bothered to release the documents at all. Either release the documents with no redactions or don’t even bother to release them at all.
https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2026/07/FINAL-CBP-Release-Package.pdf
I wish I could disagree.
Many times, you wiff the first time, then make.progress the second. The prior changed the playing field.
This very disclosure n consequence or lack is an example.
We.expect to.see the material, and “Show me the rsciepts.” is in the Zeitgeist. Now, for near everything. The Usual Suspects witholding are seen as witholding. That’s new.
You can’t talk about any Big Govt Big Thing w/o callback to The Rona Spasm if.domestic, The Iraq n Afganistan Wars if foreign, and Climate?, I Hardly Know It! if BigThink about The End Of The World As We Know It.
Will The Feckless R’s do anything about this with governing apparatus. Prob not. BUT they are allowing these hearings. That’s new.
We’re even seeing actual execution on pledged.priorities even in Congress. Some. Any. The Feckless R caucuses in congress are showing uncommon unity and resolve … for them.
Nice work Leslie!
Aiding and abetting foreign bioterrorism. Charge him with treason followed by a public execution.
Just stop already with the treason and execution nonsense. Nobody is going to be charged and found guilty of treason. And nobody, let me repeat, nobody is ever going to be executed. The republicans don’t have, and never will have, the balls to do such a thing. So just stop. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
eot
“Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
Wait, you’re him? The Screaming D’s were right for. once?
Good work on Rand Paul’s part. But what will come of it? Little to nothing.
What a travesty.
Look, the worst part of this was around half the country saw this for the scam it was early on, But, the other half acted as crusading, authoritarian fools. It forever changed my view of my fellow man,
Leftist fools believe that if only human nature were unleashed all would be well. The Bible, the news, and history say otherwise.
half of the country did not see this as a scam, maybe 20%
“It forever changed my view of my fellow man.”
Illustrates my point replying to LM above. The event has shifted the take from which you assess things. Exactly.
One.of many prescriptions avail from the “Beautiful Trouble” — electronic age heirs to Alinsky — catalog builds on the observation that the action isn’t the point; it’s the response.to the action, thusly:
The point is the shift in perspectives generwted by the action and response, mostly among observers.
Consider the population to be influenced in 5 categories: hard agree, weak agree, indifferent, weak oppose, hard oppose.
The point of an action is to move some with one agreement, one step further, the right direction.
Many players in The Rona Spasm in effect did actions that shifted perspectives without meaning to. They were just being righteously in charge, as is their right n prerogative, Just ask them.
Unless we’re pursuing arrest, conviction and execution on this please shut up.
If we’re just going to talk about this endlessly while the left puts together and enacts their next atrocity there’s really no point.
And that IS all that we ever seem to do.
The left has laid it’s sin of extreme racism at our feet and we do nothing.
They rape and kill–in this case millions(again) and we just let them keep going.
Will this affect Fauci at all?
Yes, it’ll make him ecstatic. Fame is fame. He’ll be on the front page again, thwarting justice.
We are serious about biosecurity. First, the elimination of USAID dried up the funding sources of biolabs worldwide. Then in 2025, Trump’s issued an EO to end gain of function funding. Just recently, ODNI Gabbard publicly released intelligence showing over 120 labs around the world including 30 in the Ukraine. So it’s not just China that presented a threat.
Team Trump took action. Sen. Paul, it appears, is on a personal vendetta (nothing wrong with that) and not fact finding for national security legislation. Remember, Obama stopped gain of function research funding — and Fauci slithered through a hole in the fence to get funding from (most probably) USAID NGO’s.
I’m surprised that UNC virologist, Ralph Baric isn’t getting more attention. IMO, he is at or near the top of those responsible for the pandemic. He developed the technique for inserting the genetic material for “spike protein” into non-pathogenic coronavirus, worked with Wuhan lab, was a CIA “consultant”, and a few days ago, RFK, Jr. said that Dr.Baric also developed a technique to hide the evidence that the virus had been manipulated. Seems to me that Fauci is a ego driven useful idiot that was used for funding and cover up…by CIA, which Fauci visited multiple times.
“FBI New York has requested” CBP should have said thanks for the advice but we’re still going to do our duty
Leaders in all of our federal agencies need to grow a pair and stop kowtowing to the national security apparatus. Federal agencies have work to do, assigned to them by laws passed by Congress. The FBI, DOJ, CIA, DIA, etc. are all inferior to Congress. When one federal agency approaches another and says “Back off,” the response should be “Get bent.” If there’s a legitimate purpose to the request, the requesting agency can make its argument in front of a court and get a “cease and desist” order from a judge. Otherwise the requesting agency is just obstructing the execution of another agency’s duties.
If the FBI was told to “back off” by the Forest Service, does anyone think the FBI would comply? Of course not. The Forest Service can’t tell the FBI to stop doing that which it is tasked with doing by law. The FBI knows this and would behave accordingly. There is no reason why it shouldn’t work the other way around.
The unfortunate reason – which should be ignored, but isn’t:
‘Chuck Schumer, a swamp Democrat, said this on MSNBC: “Let me tell you, you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday of getting back at you.”’
Nothing says “legitimate businesses being conducted” like smuggling articles across international borders.
Everyone keeps on overlooking the elephant manure in the room.
Why did the FBI go to bat for these saboteurs?
Why did the FBI go to bat for Maryland Man the human smuggler?
Although I’m sure there is at least a third element to this spate, I forgot what it was, maybe someone can refresh my memory.
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