Documents released by Sen. Rand Paul and summarized by Fox News Digital show U.S. Customs and Border Protection flagged Peter Daszak as “a high person of interest” before his Feb. 5, 2021 arrival at John F. Kennedy International Airport, and that the FBI’s New York Field Office subsequently asked CBP not to carry out the planned stop, according to the records.
The released files include flight itineraries, a list of proposed questions for an inspection, and internal emails that describe the intended CBP action and the FBI’s request. The records present investigative plans and allegations as recorded by officials; they do not adjudicate wrongdoing.
What the released files show about Peter Daszak
The documents posted as part of Sen. Rand Paul’s release show materials CBP agents were preparing ahead of Daszak’s return. Those materials include flight itineraries, passenger information and a short list of proposed inspection questions that would have been used at JFK.
The records indicate CBP’s National Targeting Center flagged Daszak because of his long-term collaborations with researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and his role as principal investigator on NIH-funded projects studying bat coronaviruses, according to the files summarized in media reporting.
CBP planners drafted specific questions about Daszak’s activities in China, his contacts at the WIV, whether he had transported biological materials, and requests to obtain device or sample information. The files also reference NIH communications asking for retrieval of a type-specimen from the WIV for genetic analysis, as recorded in the release.
Why the agencies clashed
The timeline in the records shows the FBI’s New York Field Office contacted CBP three days before the scheduled interdiction and asked that the stop not proceed. One internal message included in the release states, “FBI New York requested we do not stop the subject below,” and the planned inspection did not take place, according to the documents.
Internal emails in the release document disagreement between CBP and the FBI over the planned action. The records published do not include a detailed, public explanation from the FBI justifying its request in the released materials; Fox News reporting notes outreach to the FBI but does not report a substantive public rationale contained in the posted files.
Daszak’s ties, grants and the gain-of-function allegation
The files describe Daszak’s collaborations with WIV researchers, including long-term scientific partnerships and co-authored work, and they note his role directing NIH-funded projects researching bat coronaviruses in China. The records present a characterization that some of the funded work could be described as gain-of-function research; that description appears in the documents as an allegation recorded by investigators, not as a legal or scientific determination.
At the time covered by the records, Daszak was president of EcoHealth Alliance and later participated in a World Health Organization team that traveled to China to study origins questions. The release also records public criticism and concerns about potential conflicts of interest tied to those roles, as reflected in the posted materials.
Oversight, transparency and what this means now
The release of these records has prompted renewed questions from oversight officials and observers about interagency communication and transparency in probes related to COVID-19 origins. The files are documentary evidence of plans and communications; they show what agencies recorded and proposed, and some entries relay allegations or investigative characterizations rather than proven facts.
Public officials and watchdogs may use the documents to press for additional information or formal explanations from the agencies involved. Any follow-up actions or official findings would require further reporting, agency statements or formal investigations beyond the contents of the released files.
Where to find the records and source details
The records discussed here were released by Sen. Rand Paul and are summarized in reporting by Fox News Digital. Fox News’s report links to the underlying documents posted as part of the senator’s release and notes the outlet reached out to the FBI and Nature Health Global for comment.
Read the Fox News story and view the documents referenced in this article: Fox News: Rand Paul releases docs that reveal FBI halted border inspection of virus researcher. The documents themselves were published by Sen. Rand Paul as part of his public release (see the links included in the Fox News story for direct access to the reading room).
Source attribution: reporting and documents published by Fox News Digital and records released by Sen. Rand Paul.
