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FBI was not allowed to brief President Joe Biden on evidence that suggested Covid-19 was caused by a lab leak, ex-scientist for US intelligence agency claims

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The FBI was not allowed to brief the US president on evidence suggesting Covid-19 was caused by a lab leak, it was claimed last night

The FBI was not allowed to brief the US President on evidence suggesting Covid-19 was caused by a laboratory leak, it was claimed last night.

Jason Bannan, a former senior FBI scientist, alleged that the intelligence agency was not invited to a National Intelligence Council (NIC) briefing with Joe Biden.

Bannan told the Wall Street Journal: “As the only agency that assessed that a laboratory origin was most likely, and the agency that expressed the highest level of confidence in its analysis of the source of the pandemic, we anticipated that the FBI.” to attend the information session.

“I’m surprised the White House hasn’t asked.”

US President Joe Biden authorized an investigation by US intelligence agencies and national laboratories in May 2021 to discover the origin of the virus.

The FBI found that a lab leak was the likely cause of the virus and had “moderate confidence” in its assessment.

Meanwhile, the NIC had concluded with “low confidence” that Covid-19 had been transmitted from an animal to a human, but this view was presented to the president.

A spokesperson for the DNI’s office told the Wall Street Journal that different opinions among the intelligence community had been represented and that it was against standard practice to invite representatives of individual agencies to briefings for the president.

The FBI was not allowed to brief the US president on evidence suggesting Covid-19 was caused by a lab leak, it was claimed last night

FILE PHOTO: US President Joe Biden delivers a speech on the economy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, US, on December 10, 2024.

FILE PHOTO: US President Joe Biden delivers a speech on the economy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, US, on December 10, 2024.

The DNI and NIC’s work on the origins of Covid-19 “met all of the intelligence community’s analytical standards, including objectivity,” the spokesperson added.

Bannan, now retired, wants the evidence supporting the lab leak theory to be reevaluated.

“There is a need to reexamine what ended up on the intelligence community’s cutting room floor,” he said.

The US review published in August 2021 concluded that it would be difficult to confirm the origin without China’s cooperation.

China only cooperated on a joint report with the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2021 that said the virus most likely jumped from bats to humans through another animal.

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