Wray Confirms that FBI Accepted Lab Theory as Likely "For Quite Some Time Now"
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Yesterday, FBI Director Christopher Wray confirmed that the FBI believes that Covid-19 did originate from a lab in China. While liberal pundits have tried to dismiss the similar finding of the Department of Energy, the public attention of the FBI will make it more difficult to spin out of this major story. Yet, the most interesting moment with Wray came in an interview with Fox News host Bret Baier. Wray told Baier that the agency has, "for quite some time now, assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan." The notion that the FBI has held this belief for "quite some time now" is unnerving since it remained stoney silent as experts and commentators were censored and shunned for even uttering the theory.
The disclosure of the Energy Department's conclusion has followed a familiar attack pattern. While the Wall Street Journal report referenced the supporting view of intelligence officials, some of the left reflectively followed the same modus operandi in attacking the Department like it was some isolated scientist who dared to speak up. Comedian Stephen Colbert ridiculed the Department for failing to make enough charging stations and claimed that this was "outside the lane" of the Department. In other words, a Department tasked with this investigation by the President with extensive lab search facilities lacked expertise to render an opinion. Colbert even noted "You don't see the Census Bureau building nukes."
It is a typical attack point for many on the left, but it works better when you are stripping some luckless, lonely academic of speaking opportunities or censoring him on social media. For his part, Wray seemed to cut off such a similar attack in his interview with Baier:
"Let me step back for a second, the FBI has folks, agents, professionals, analysts, virologists, microbiologists, etc. who focus specifically on the dangers of biological threats, which include things like novel viruses like COVID and the concerns that, in the wrong hands, some bad guys, a hostile nation-state, a terrorist, a criminal, the threats that those could pose. So, here, you're talking about a potential leak from a Chinese government-controlled lab that killed millions of Americans, and that's precisely what that capability was designed for. I should add that our work related to this continues, and there are not a whole lot of details I can share that aren't classified. I will just make the observation that the Chinese government, it seems to me, has been doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate the work here…and that's unfortunate for everybody."
In other words, this is "our lane."
However, the failure to previously disclose this conclusion was troubling. For years, scientists faced censorship for even raising the lab theory as a possible explanation for the virus. Their reputations and careers were shredded by a media flash mob. The Washington Post declared this a "debunked" coronavirus "conspiracy theory." T he New York Times' Science and Health reporter Apoorva Mandavilli was calling any mention of the lab theory "racist."
When a Chinese researcher told Fox News that this was man-made, the network was attacked and the left-leaning PolitiFact slammed her with her a "pants on fire rating."
The social media companies censored thousands of postings to prevent the very discussion of the theory. Academic, media, and government forces aligned to prevent this — and other debates on Covid — from taking place.
The FBI was part of that general censorship effort. The Twitter Files has established that as many as 80 agents may have been employed to target citizens and others for censorship on social media. We also know that the CDC was actively involved in such censorship efforts.
When those files were released, Democrats went into a full attack mode. Some even accused those wanting to investigate the FBI's role in censorship of being "Putin lovers" in a type of Red Scare 2.0.
I testified at the recent hearing on the files and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) adopted the same Colbert-like attack. She denounced me for offering "legal opinions" without actually working at Twitter. It is like saying that a witness should not discuss the content of the Pentagon Papers unless he worked at the Pentagon. It was particularly bizarre because the content of the Twitter Files (like the Pentagon papers) are "facts." The implication of those facts are opinions. I was asked about both the factual content of Twitter files and their legal implications. Nevertheless, the effort was to portray anyone objecting to censorship as "outside their lane" or engaging in raw speculation. Yet, the Democrats have still opposed any investigation into the facts of government-supported censorship.
We now know that the FBI, for "quite some time now," has agreed with scientists and experts who were being censored over this theory. It is not clear if the FBI actively sought their censorship on social media. However, at best, the FBI stayed silent as the media pushed the narrative that the lab theory was a racist, debunked conspiracy theory.
That record is similar to what occurred on the Russian collusion scandal. Early on in the scandal, the FBI was informed that the infamous Steele dossier was not only paid for by the Hillary Clinton campaign but may be part of a disinformation campaign by Russian intelligence. Key sources were pegged as likely Russian intelligence assets. Yet none of this was revealed for years as the media relentlessly pounded away on the allegations and attacked anyone who expressed doubts on the basis of the investigation. Notably, a great deal of information damaging to then President Donald Trump leaked from the FBI but not the fact that it was told that this might be a Russian disinformation effort.
Obviously, the FBI's role is not to correct the record in political or scientific debates. However, the FBI was repeatedly asked about this theory by Congress over the years and never indicated publicly that it had made this determination.
It is also not clear if the House and Senate intelligence committees were told of this finding. In May 2021, then-House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff said that the Committee was assessing the intelligence. He warned critics from making any "any premature or politically motivated conclusions." He promised a conclusion within a couple months.
If the FBI had reached this conclusion "some time" ago, the question is whether it or agencies like CDC were still supporting the censorship of those raising the theory. This is why the public should be focused as much on the censorship as the science behind the lab theory controversy. We will likely debate for years the merits of the theory. However, that is a debate that many in the media, academia, and the government actively sought to prevent for years. We need to know how our own government may have contributed to that ignoble effort.
Jonathan Turley
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If the FBI believed it all this time, then why did they let so many be called "conspiracy theorists" as others got censored for asking such questions?
Democrats are turning our government into their version of the CCCP.
Free speech is what they say it is. Promote Brandon administration doctrine or end up on the DOJ/FBI watch list; where censorship will be the least of your concerns. IRS silently waiting in the background.
Believe that and I have beach front property for sale in Afghanistan.