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FBI was not allowed to brief President Joe Biden on evidence that suggested Covid-19 was caused by a lab leak, ex-scientist for US intelligence agency claims

The FBI was not allowed to brief the US President on evidence that suggested Covid-19 was caused by a lab leak, it was claimed last night.

Jason Bannan, former senior scientist at the FBI, alleged the intelligence agency was not invited to a National Intelligence Council (NIC) briefing with Joe Biden.

Mr Bannan told the Wall Street Journal: ‘Being the only agency that assessed that a laboratory origin was more likely, and the agency that expressed the highest level of confidence in its analysis of the source of the pandemic, we anticipated the FBI would be asked to attend the briefing.

‘I find it surprising that the White House didn’t ask.’

US President Joe Biden authorised an investigation in May 2021 by US intelligence agencies and national laboratories to uncover the origin of the virus.

The FBI found that a lab leak was the likely cause of the virus and had ‘moderate confidence’ in its assessment.

Meanwhile, the NIC had concluded with only ‘low confidence’ that Covid-19 had been transmitted from an animal to a human, but this view was presented to the President.

A spokesman for the DNI’s office told the Wall Street Journal that the differing views among the intelligence community had been represented and it was against standard practice to invite representatives from individual agencies to briefings for the president.

The FBI was not allowed to brief the US President on evidence that suggested Covid-19 was caused by a lab leak, it was claimed last night

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the economy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, U.S. December 10, 2024

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the economy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, U.S. December 10, 2024

The DNI and the NIC’s work on Covid-19 origins ‘complied with all of the intelligence community’s analytic standards, including objectivity,’ the spokesman added.

Mr Bannan, now retired, wants the evidence backing a lab leak theory to be reassessed.

‘What ended up on the intelligence community’s cutting-room floor needs to be re-examined,’ he said.

The US review published in August 2021 concluded thatit would be hard to confirm the origin without cooperation from China.

China has only cooperated on a joint report with the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2021 which said the virus most likely moved from bats to humans via another animal.



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