Congressman Wenstrup tells Fauci: Honesty is not up for negotiation

The chair of the House subcommittee investigating COVID-19’s origins warned that “honesty is non-negotiable” when Dr. Anthony Fauci appears before the panel next month.

Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), is scheduled to testify before the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic behind closed doors Jan. 8-9.

“There’s a lot we need to know. We’re gonna get retrospective on the policies, and he’ll have a chance to explain them,” Chair Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, told National Review of Fauci. “To me, honesty is non-negotiable.”

Wenstrup this month told Newsmax that the subcommittee plans to determine Fauci ‘s role before and during the COVID pandemic.

There are a lot of “lessons learned and a lot of things to look into,” Wenstrup told “Rob Schmitt Tonight” on Dec. 4.

The House panel wants to determine Fauci’s involvement in gain-of-function research at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology, where it’s believed COVID originated. The subcommittee also aims to evaluate the federal government’s COVID response, and develop an approach to preventing a future pandemic, National Review said.

Wenstrup, a physician for more than 30 years, told the outlet that he would like Fauci’s appearance to be more of a round-table discussion than a deposition. Fauci, President Joe Biden’s former chief medical adviser, also will appear for a yet-to-be-scheduled public congressional hearing.

“What I’m finding in so many compartments, government and now science, is that some think that the truth is too harmful for the American people to understand and that they know better,” Wenstrup told National Review. “They’re going to tell you one thing when maybe they’re thinking something else, and Dr. Fauci has been part of a group like that.”

The panel also intends to probe EcoHealth Alliance, the nonprofit that used funds from the National Institutes of Health to conduct coronavirus research at the Wuhan lab, and scientific censorship of Americans who questioned the pandemic’s source, National Review said.

Wenstrup in September alleged that Fauci was “escorted” secretly into CIA headquarters and tried to influence the agency’s investigation into the origins of COVID-19.

Wenstrup outlined the information in a letter to Health and Human Services Inspector General Christi Grimm. Wenstrup argued that discovery of Fauci’s visit “lends credence to heightened concerns about the promotion of a false COVID-19 origins narrative by multiple federal government agencies.”

Before that, evidence was released suggesting Fauci prompted, edited, and approved the writing of a scientific paper with the goal of disproving the lab leak theory.