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Sen Eric Schmitt says he ‘won’t be apologizing’ as China hits him with $50B lawsuit
By Taylor Penley, Alex Miller
Published December 17, 2025
Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., said Tuesday that he "won't be apologizing" to China any time soon, as he opened up about a $50 billion lawsuit filed against him in retaliation for suing the country during his time as Missouri’s attorney general.
"It's totally ridiculous. They're just mad that we exposed their lies and their deceit," he told "The Ingraham Angle."
"Missouri got a $24 billion judgment against them, and they don't like that," Schmitt continued. "They unleashed COVID on the world. We sued them, and we won."
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Sen. Eric Schmitt talks to reporters as he leaves a Republican Caucus meeting at the U.S. Capitol on Nov. 7, in Washington, D.C. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
The People’s Government of Wuhan Municipality, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Wuhan Institute of Virology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences are suing Schmitt for roughly $50 billion, years after he sued China during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The lawsuit, first obtained by Fox News Digital, accused Schmitt, FBI co-deputy director Andrew Bailey and the state of Missouri of damaging the reputations of China, Wuhan and the associated research facilities through "malicious vexatious litigation, fabricating enormous disinformation, and spreading stigmatizing and discriminating slanders."
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Security personnel stand guard outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, as members of the World Health Organization investigating the origins of COVID-19 visit the facility on Feb. 3, 2021. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)
Schmitt blasted the matter as "sour grapes," while explaining that his team is working on translating the legal papers served to him.
"I won't be apologizing any time soon, as you'd imagine," he said.
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Schmitt sued the People's Republic of China (PRC), several Chinese government ministries, the Communist Party of China, the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in early 2020 while serving as Missouri's attorney general.
At the time, he accused the Chinese government of withholding information on COVID-19 and failing to contain the outbreak, among other grievances.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/sen-schmitt-says-he-wont-apologizing-china-hits-him-50b-lawsuit