At 10 AM, Sen. Rand Paul commenced a Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee by stating, “For years, Americans were told to trust the experts, trust the agencies, trust the intelligence community, and trust the officials who assured us that they were following the science. But the evidence before the committee tells a very different story.”

He outlined a system in which a select group of officials, scientists, grant recipients, and intelligence advisors shifted between different agencies, meetings, and briefings. They assessed one another’s work, swayed each other’s conclusions, and subsequently presented these results to Congress and the public as though they had been developed independently.

“Only it was not independent; it was a circle, Paul explained. Essentially, he explained that the intelligence community compensates researchers to analyze studies and produce reports. He mentioned that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) provides funding for their grants, the CIA seeks their expertise and grants them access to classified data, and the National Academies are responsible for publishing their findings. Policy makers then cite the result as a consensus, and “at the center of the government side of this circle was Dr. Anthony Fauci.”

“For years,” he said, “Dr. Fauci was not merely a public health official speaking from the NIH. He had a long-standing relationship with the National Security and Intelligence apparatus on biological threats, dangerous pathogens, classified life sciences researches, pandemic preparedness, and COVID origins.”

Repeatedly, Paul said, documents reveal Fauci’s involvement in national security discussions that extended well beyond typical public health communication. During the COVID crisis, intelligence officials arranged for Dr. Fauci to review highly classified intelligence assessments that were restricted from being shared outside the White House compound.

“But how can Anthony Fauci objectively comment on a discussion of COVID origins when he approved the very funding that may have caused the pandemic virus?” Paul asked. “From the outset of the pandemic, Dr. Fauci shaped the conclusions. Dozens of times, he referred to the idea that the pandemic originating in the lab was a conspiracy.”

Paul said that Fauci held “the now infamous” call on February 1, 2020. During that call, some scientists privately expressed serious doubts about a laboratory origin.

Concurrently, Fauci collaborated with the National Academies on messaging regarding coronavirus origins. Paul said these individuals were not independent experts reaching a consensus; they were part of the same system designed to arrive at a predetermined conclusion.

Developing story. Check back for updates. 

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