(Congress Report) – Not only is it likely that the coronavirus leaked out of a lab in Wuhan, China, but it seems new reports have revealed the U.S. government might have been charged twice for projects that were completed at the lab through the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Agency for International Development, according to a series of records that were reviewed by CBS News. This whole situation with Wuhan is a disaster. A pure, unmitigated, disaster.
“What I’ve found so far is evidence that points to double billing, potential theft of government funds. It is concerning, especially since it involves dangerous pathogens and risky research,” Diane Cutler, who served as a former federal investigator with over twenty years of experience fighting against white-collar crime and healthcare fraud, as per CBS News.
“Cutler found evidence of possible double payments as she investigated U.S. government grants that supported high risk research in China leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic. She was hired by Republican Sen. Roger Marshall, who took her records to USAID and the internal watchdog at USAID, which launched a new probe, details of which have not been previously reported,” Catherine Herridge and Analisa Novak disclosed for the news outlet.
Cutler noted that she viewed well over 50,000 documents and that the United States government might have made duplicate payments for medical supplies, travel and salaries, and equipment. Tens of millions of dollars could potentially be involved.
Sources who are familiar with the grant records involved did not dispute any of the reporting included in the CBS News article.
Herridge and Novak continued, “A spokesperson for USAID declined to comment. A USAID inspector general spokesperson declined to comment ‘on the existence of a specific open investigation.’ The press office for NIH did not respond to CBS News’ questions.”
Sources also spoke with CBS News and remarked that the investigation of the potential double-billing could take six months to wrap up. Marshall has since started calling for a 9/11-style commission on the matter.
“I think there’s 1.1 million reasons that American taxpayers should care,” he stated. “You’ll have a plane crashes. We want to find out why the plane crashes. We go to any lengths to do that. And the hope is we don’t have another plane crash for the same reason.”
“While intelligence agencies have not been able to reach a consensus on the origin of the pandemic, the FBI and Energy Department have found an accidental lab leak is plausible. The Wuhan Institute of Virology conducted viral research in the city where the SARS-CoV-2 virus first emerged,” the report said. “During a recent congressional hearing regarding the origins of COVID-19, the House voted unanimously on a bill ordering the declassification of intelligence about the origins. Robert Redfield, the former director of the CDC, testified that money from the NIH, the State Department, USAID and the Defense Department provided funding for high-risk virus research in Wuhan.”
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