GOP lawmaker demands DNI release full COVID origins report, criticizes DNI 'opinion' on findings
Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, demanded further declassification from the office of the Director of National Intelligence after they released their COVID-19 origins findings, arguing it was just their "opinion" of the actual intelligence.
Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, demanded the Office of the Director of National Intelligence release the "intelligence" and "not their opinion about the intelligence" surrounding the origins of COVID-19.
CBS host Margaret Brennan asked Turner whether he believed there was a "definitive conclusion" that the government was not releasing.
"So I have seen, for example, the classified annex to the report that President Biden requested the intelligence community gave. What you just read were more conclusions by the intelligence community. In the report that was given to the president, the 90-day or so report, they have information in that report that contradicts, I believe, the impressions that are given in these statements by the intelligence committee. We want the intelligence released, not their opinion about the intelligence. If we wanted their opinion, we would have asked for it," he said.
He demanded they release it to the American public and argued experts outside of the intelligence community needed to see it as well.
Rep. Mike Turner joined CBS' Margaret Brennan on Sunday and discussed the DNI's summary
US FUNDED RESEARCH TO CREATE ‘MUTANT VIRUSES’ AT WUHAN LAB AHEAD OF COVID-19, RECORDS SHOW
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a nine-page report on the "Potential Links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Origin of the COVID-19 Pandemic," which analyzed the U.S. intelligence community's understanding of the Wuhan, China-based institute at the center of the theory that the pandemic could have come from a lab leak, including its capabilities and actions of its personnel, the summary said.
While the intelligence community hasn't come to a conclusion on whether the pandemic was spurred by a lab leak or from "natural exposure" by an infected animal - like at one of the wild animal markets in China - "All agencies continue to assess that both a natural and laboratory-associated origin remain plausible hypotheses to explain the first human infection," the report said.
Brennan asked Turner why their findings were "so inconclusive."
"Well, this is the problem really what the Director of National Intelligence has done, Director Haines," he said. "We passed a law saying declassify the information you have about the Covid and Wuhan lab’s activities. What they did is basically went and did a paper on what they believe about the intelligence they’ve looked at."
"To give you an example of this," Turner continued, "we’ve asked to open the curtain and release the intelligence and they went behind the curtain read the stuff and came out and said this is what we think about it. This is not sufficient and this is going to set up a battle between the Congress and Director of National intelligence to make certain that law passed unanimously both the Senate and house and signed by the president, complied with, but also the American public get the answers they deserve."
Security personnel stand guard outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan as members of the World Health Organization (WHO) team investigating the origins of the COVID-19 coronavirus make a visit to the institute in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on February 3, 2021. (Photo by Hector RETAMAL / AFP) (Photo by HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images) (Photo by Hector Retamal/ AFP)
COVID LAB LEAK THEORY: RAND PAUL SAYS BIDEN SHOULD DECLASSIFY DOCS AFTER ENERGY DEPARTMENT REVERSAL
The Department of Energy joined the FBI in concluding that COVID likely originated from an accidental lab-leak in February.
The Energy Department, which was previously undecided on the origin of the pandemic, joined the FBI’s stance that the coronavirus likely spread due to a mishap at a Chinese laboratory, the Wall Street Journal reported at the time.
Brennan also asked Turner about a "classified annex" that wasn't released. Turner said he had not been able to look at the annex in a classified setting.
A view of the P4 lab inside the Wuhan Institute of Virology is seen after a visit by the World Health Organization team in Wuhan in China's Hubei province on Feb. 3, 2021. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
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"I haven't had access it to in a classified setting. Even releasing a classified annex goes against what the law says. The law says declassify, not give us more classified information. My committee has seen a significant amount of this intelligence, giving my committee more intelligence doesn’t give it to the public and that’s what declassification law was about," Turner said.
The report was declassified in response to the COVID-19 Origin Act of 2023, which President Biden signed in March, requiring government information on what may have led to the pandemic to be declassified.
Fox News' Adam Sabes and Brie Stimson contributed to this report.
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