Rand Paul Releases Documents Showing FBI Told Border Agents To Stand Down On Questioning EcoHealth's Peter Daszak

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., released documents Monday showing that U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents were preparing to question and search Peter Daszak, the former president of EcoHealth Alliance, when he returned to the United States on Feb. 5, 2021, before the FBI intervened and asked agents to stand down.

Daszak had just returned from the World Health Organization's investigation into the origins of COVID-19. According to the documents, CBP's National Targeting Center had flagged him as a "high person of interest" ahead of his arrival at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

"They told the public a COVID lab leak 'wasn't plausible,'" Paul wrote on X. "Their own private messages say otherwise." Paul also announced the launch of what he's calling The Reading Room, a public archive where he says people can review the underlying documents from his investigation rather than just his conclusions. "This isn't the whole story," Paul wrote. "It's the start of one. The Reading Room will be updated on a rolling basis as the investigation continues."

Why Daszak Was Flagged

The documents cite more than 15 years of collaboration between Daszak and the Wuhan Institute of Virology, along with his long relationship with the lab's lead researcher, Zhengli Shi. Daszak also served as principal investigator on National Institutes of Health grants that funded bat coronavirus research in China, some of which the documents say went toward gain-of-function research.

CBP officials had planned to ask Daszak about his activities in China, his contacts at the Wuhan lab, and whether he had illegally collected or carried biological samples. The NIH had separately asked Daszak to retrieve the original type-specimen used by the Wuhan lab for genetic analysis and bring it back to the U.S., and to explain aspects of his collaboration with the lab, including turning over related cell phone data.

None of that questioning happened. Three days before Daszak's arrival, CBP received a request from the FBI's New York Field Office to halt the stop. "FBI New York requested we do not stop the subject below," the request states, according to the documents.

What's Proven and What Isn't

The documents released by Paul establish a specific, concrete fact: CBP flagged Daszak as a high-priority target, and the FBI called off the planned inspection. The records include detailed flight itineraries, proposed interrogation questions, and internal emails documenting the interagency disagreement over the search.

What the documents do not establish is why the FBI made that call. Paul's framing — that this is evidence of a "cover-up" and "misdirection" — is his interpretation of the record, not something spelled out by the documents themselves. There's a real difference between a federal law enforcement agency deciding not to interfere with an ongoing intelligence or diplomatic matter and a federal law enforcement agency actively suppressing evidence.

The Bigger Investigation

This release fits into a pattern for Paul, who has spent years pushing for records related to the pandemic's origins and the government's early response. He has previously brought a CIA whistleblower before the Senate to testify about alleged pressure on intelligence analysts to alter their findings on the lab leak question, and he has repeatedly clashed with Dr. Anthony Fauci over the funding of gain-of-function research through EcoHealth Alliance grants.

At the time of the planned interception, Daszak headed the now-defunct EcoHealth Alliance, which had conducted research and outreach on the causes of emerging pandemic diseases such as those originating in bats. He was a member of the 10-person WHO team that traveled to China to investigate the origins of SARS-CoV-2, and he had previously faced public criticism over a potential conflict of interest for serving on that team given his financial and professional ties to the Wuhan lab. Daszak now heads Nature Health Global, a nonprofit focused on ecological research, public health and pandemic prevention.

Fox News Digital reached out to the FBI and Nature Health Global for comment on the documents.

Paul's new public document repository is intended to let outside researchers and journalists examine the underlying paper trail themselves rather than rely solely on his committee's characterizations.