Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) told Just the News that he believes Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has tried to conceal documents related to gain-of-function research.
“We will have some more explosive information that comes out in the next week, though, that some of the communications between Anthony Fauci and his assistant involved some programs that are very worrisome, gain-of-function programs that we didn’t know existed until we came across these emails,” Paul said of the ongoing investigation into the subject.
He noted that the topic has also divided members of Congress. “There’s an internal fight in Congress,” he said. “So Tom Cotton is the chairman of the Intelligence Committee. He is doing everything he possibly can to prevent us from getting information about these programs. He has written to the Director of National Intelligence and said that he does not want any information shared with our committee.”
“If it goes to him, he might condescend if he decides to do so, to let us look at some information,” Paul added. “But the problem is what we really need are scientists. And even when I oversee this, I ask the opinion of scientists because it’s classified. We have no assurance that any scientists with any kind of skepticism are looking over this and saying whether we should be doing this or not, and if you want to be alarmed by this.”
The senator noted that his belief is that “most of the gain-of-function research that’s going on, and probably still goes on, is classified and done in the bioweapons or biodefense category, but they won’t tell us.”
Democratic senators this week blocked Paul’s effort to obtain testimony from one of Fauci’s assistants in exchange for her immunity. The assistant, who remains unknown, allegedly destroyed federal records on Fauci’s behalf.
