FBI examining COVID-19 origin 'cover-up' amid new strain emergence: Bongino
Print Close
By Jasmine Baehr
Published May 28, 2025
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino stated Wednesday evening that the bureau is examining issues related to the origin of COVID-19, though he did not confirm the existence of a formal investigation into a cover-up.
Bongino made the remarks in a post on X amid growing media attention on a newly identified COVID-19 strain.
"As we read and process reports of a new COVID strain emerging, I want you to know that we are actively investigating, in multiple field offices, the cover-up of the origin of the COVID virus, along with associated matters requiring our attention," Bongino wrote. "The American people deserve answers."
FBI DEPUTY DIRECTOR BONGINO: ILLEGAL ALIEN CRIMINALS AND CHILD PREDATORS ARE NEXT IN ONGOING CRACKDOWN
He did not identify specific individuals or entities under scrutiny. The FBI has not issued an official news release on the matter, and the scope of the review remains unclear.
The FBI did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
Bongino's comment represents one of the most direct public statements by a senior FBI official regarding the agency's continued interest in the pandemic's origin and the surrounding circumstances.
In 2023, then-FBI Director Christopher Wray said the agency assessed with moderate confidence that COVID-19 most likely originated from a lab incident in Wuhan, China. Chinese authorities have consistently denied such claims, calling them politically motivated and unsubstantiated.
FBI DEPUTY DIRECTOR DAN BONGINO: JAMES COMEY 'BROUGHT SHAME TO THE FBI AGAIN' WITH '86 47' POST
Bongino's post follows the detection of a new COVID-19 variant, provisionally identified by researchers as NB.1.8.1, which has appeared in several U.S. states. Federal health authorities have not designated it as a variant of concern.
The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic has continued its inquiry into whether early public health messaging downplayed the lab leak theory for diplomatic or political reasons.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, a former White House health advisor, has repeatedly denied any effort to conceal information, calling those allegations "entirely false."
DOJ INVESTIGATING ANDREW CUOMO FOR ALLEGEDLY LYING ABOUT COVID DECISIONS, SOURCE CONFIRMS
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Bongino has increasingly used social media to communicate bureau updates directly to the public.
A former NYPD officer and Secret Service agent, Bongino was appointed deputy director earlier this year by FBI Director Kash Patel. Print Close
URL
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/fbi-examining-covid-19-origin-cover-up-amid-new-strain-emergence-bongino
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
12 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Nvidia stock falls as Trump says China 'violated' trade deal with US
Nvidia (NVDA) stock dropped as much as 2% Friday morning after US President Trump claimed that China had 'totally violated' an agreement with the US. The tech-heavy Nasdaq (^IXIC) fell 0.3%, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) was down just 0.1% late Friday morning. "The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US," Trump said in a post on Truth Social. "So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!" The US and China agreed to temporarily reduce sky-high tariff rates in mid-May after a meeting between US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Switzerland. In what the White House called a 'historic deal,' the US dropped its duties on China to 30%, while China decreased its tariff on the US to 10% and agreed to 'suspend or remove the non-tariff countermeasures.' But late Thursday, Bessent said in an interview with Fox News that US-China trade talks were 'a bit stalled.' Trump did not give further details about how China had violated its preliminary agreement with the US, but US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer echoed the president's sentiments in an interview with CNBC Friday, saying that 'the Chinese are slow rolling their compliance.' While Nvidia was largely unscathed by the import tax on Chinese goods enacted in April — since most of its chips are made in Taiwan and then manufactured in servers in that country or Mexico — the company took a $5.5 billion hit from the Trump administration's separate, recent ban on sales of its chips to China. Nvidia makes specialized, lower performance versions of its Hopper AI chips for the China market called H20. Nvidia revealed in its latest quarterly earnings report this week that it lost $2.5 billion in sales in the first quarter due to the ban and expects another $8 billion loss in the second quarter. 'China is, and will remain the largest overhang on NVDA shares until we get resolution from the Trump administration,' DA Davidson analyst Gil Luria said in a note to investors Thursday. China is one of Nvidia's biggest markets. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the company has no new products planned for the Chinese market. 'We don't have anything at the moment, but we're considering it,' he told analysts following the company's earnings release Wednesday. 'Obviously, the limits are quite stringent at the when the time comes, we'll engage the [Trump] administration and discuss that.' Some on Wall Street remain optimistic about Nvidia's China prospects. 'We remain convinced that there will be at least some recovery of the China opportunity,' wrote Morgan Stanley analyst Joseph Moore in a note to investors Thursday. Even with Friday's drop, Nvidia stock was on track to notch a more than 3% gain for the trading week. Nvidia shares rose 3% Thursday after the AI chipmaker reported first quarter revenue that surpassed Wall Street's expectations despite the China-related headwinds. Laura Bratton is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Bluesky @ Email her at Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Fox News
12 minutes ago
- Fox News
'Devil in the Ozarks': FBI offers $20K reward for capture of former Arkansas police chief on the run
Print Close By Audrey Conklin Published May 30, 2025 The FBI is offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to the re-capture of a former Arkansas police chief serving time for murder and rape — dubbed "the Devil in the Ozarks" — who escaped on the afternoon of May 25. Former Gateway Police Department Chief Grant Hardin, 56, escaped from the North Central Unit, a medium-security prison, that Sunday afternoon in Calico Rock , according to the Arkansas Department of Corrections (ADC). The FBI said Hardin has ties to Garfield, Eureka Springs, Holiday Island and Huntsville. "The FBI's Little Rock Field Office is assisting the U.S. Marshal Service, the Arkansas Department of Corrections, and the Arkansas State Police with the search for and apprehension of Grant Matthew Hardin," reads an FBI wanted poster. TEXAS ESCAPED INMATE CONSIDERED ARMED AND DANGEROUS AFTER PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL BREAK Former FBI agent Rob D'Amico told "Fox & Friends" Friday morning that Hardin's past as a police chief may give him a unique advantage on the run. "I think it makes it a lot more challenging. He knows how they do it. He knows what they look for, he knows how they follow leads. He knows how they do surveillance," D'Amico said. 'DEVIL IN THE OZARKS' WHO ESCAPED PRISON LIKELY STILL IN ARKANSAS AREA: OFFICIALS The former FBI agent noted that there are likely many unmanned, unlocked cabins and sheds in wooded areas around Stone County, which is located East of the Ozark Mountains. ADC Communications Director Rand Champion said during a Wednesday news conference that authorities are fairly confident in the route they believe Hardin took when he escaped prison and his current location in the region. MANHUNT UNDERWAY AFTER DISGRACED FORMER POLICE CHIEF CONVICTED OF MURDER, RAPE ESCAPES ARKANSAS PRISON "Based on the information that we have and the experience of our teams, they feel fairly confident that he is still fairly close to this region," Champion said, noting that "all it takes is one vehicle" for Hardin to use to travel elsewhere, though officials have established a perimeter around the area of Stone County. "As of this time, they are still very confident that he is in the area," Champion said. MASSIVE JAIL BREAK IN NEW ORLEANS 'IMPOSSIBLE' WITHOUT STAFF INVOLVEMENT, SAYS EX-FBI FUGITIVE HUNTER Champion said the public should assume Hardin is "a very dangerous individual," and there is a risk he may commit more crimes while he is on the run. It took less than 30 minutes for prison officials to notice that Hardin had disappeared from prison. Photos that the Stone County Sheriff's Office posted to social media show Hardin wearing an ADC-style uniform during his escape through a sally port, though Champion said the uniform he was wearing was not an official uniform. LOUISIANA AG CONFIDENT REMAINING JAILBREAK FUGITIVES WILL BE CAPTURED AFTER OFFICIALS MAKE 14TH ARREST Hardin was sentenced to 30 years for murder plus additional time for rape. He pleaded guilty to the 2017 murder of James Appleton, 59, a city water employee who was found shot in the face inside his work truck, KNWA reported. While Hardin was being booked into the state prison around that time, officials submitted his DNA sample into a database. His DNA ended up linking him to the rape cold case of a teacher in 1997, the outlet reported. Hardin ended up pleading guilty in that case in 2019, according to KNWA. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The former police chief's escape came two days after 10 prisoners escaped a correctional facility in New Orleans, eight of whom have since been re-captured while two remain at large. Hardin is described as a 6 ft. white male, weighing approximately 259 pounds. The FBI is asking tipsters to call 1-800-CALL-FBI with any information concerning the escapee. Fox News' Stepheny Price and Louis Casiano contributed to this report. Print Close URL
Forbes
16 minutes ago
- Forbes
Epstein Accuser Sues Federal Government For Allegedly Ignoring Sexual Abuse Claims
One of Jeffrey Epstein's earliest accusers filed a lawsuit against the federal government Thursday, accusing the FBI of refusing to act on her claims since she first reported sexual abuse nearly 30 years ago, as the Trump administration's FBI faces greater scrutiny about the Epstein-related documents it has repeatedly promised to release. Maria Farmer, who first brought sexual abuse claims against Epstein to the FBI in 1996, sued the federal government in Washington, D.C. federal court on Thursday, alleging the FBI 'chose to do absolutely nothing' after she warned the agency about Epstien's alleged sex crimes. According to Farmer's lawsuit, she said she was sexually assaulted by Epstein and his co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, while she stayed at Epstein's estate as an 'artist-in-residence' in 1996, and she accused them of stealing nude images of her minor sisters which Farmer had kept and used for her paintings. While reporting her concerns to the FBI, Farmer said the agency hung up on her and failed to follow up or properly investigate, and she accused the agency of violating its Manual for Investigative Operations and Guidelines, which tasks the FBI with investigating violations of federal law. Farmer also alleged she contacted the FBI in 2023 to request the agency investigate why it had ignored her complaints, to which the FBI allegedly responded they had other 'priorit[ies] right now' and would 'further assess' at a later time. Farmer said the FBI's alleged negligence 'allowed Epstein to continue to sex traffic and sexually exploit girls and young women for years' and that 'countless young women and girls would have been spared' if her concerns were investigated earlier. Farmer's lawsuit calls out Attorney General Pam Bondi, whom she notes has claimed the FBI possesses 'thousands' of videos of child pornography from Epstein, stating her claims 'could have been corroborated with minimal investigatory effort.' Farmer is an artist and painter who met Epstein and Maxwell in the mid-1990s when she was in her mid-20s, who purchased some of her work and later hired her as an art scout for his collection. Farmer said Epstein encouraged her to live in his New Albany, Ohio, home during the summer of 1996 as an 'artist-in-residence,' where Farmer said he and Maxwell sexually assaulted her in late July or early August. She accused Epstein and Maxwell of attempting to silence her by buying her off and warning 'bad things would happen to her' if she spoke up, according to Farmer's lawsuit. In 2019, Farmer filed an affidavit in New York federal court as part of another Epstein-related lawsuit accusing Epstein and Maxwell of sexual assault. Farmer also blamed Victoria's Secret billionaire Les Wexner, a close Epstein associate who owned the property Epstein's home was on. Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel have repeatedly promised for months to release documents relating to Epstein, though they have not provided a timeline, provoking criticism from both Democrats and Republicans. The Justice Department released what it called the 'first phase' of documents in a flashy reveal with right-wing influencers in February, though most of these documents were already leaked or publicly available. In March, Bondi said she had received a 'truckload' of documents from the FBI without offering a timeline for their release. Patel said in an interview Wednesday the FBI is 'diligently' working on releasing Epstein documents, stating it 'takes time to go through years of investigations.' Both Patel and Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino said in interviews this week they have video proving Epstein died by suicide in jail in 2019, rebuffing a long-held conspiracy theory that he was killed because of his connections to the political and social elite. While campaigning for the presidency in 2024, President Donald Trump—who was named in Epstein's flight logs from the 1990s but has not been linked to his crimes—said in an interview with podcaster Lex Fridmann he would be 'inclined' to release documents related to Epstein if he won the election. The case mirrors multiple lawsuits that have accused the government of ignoring Epstein accusers' claims. A group of eight Epstein accusers previously sued the federal government in September in D.C. federal court, similarly accusing the FBI of failing to investigate allegations of sexual abuse for decades. The women said they were abused by Epstein and his associates between 2002 and 2017. Twelve Epstein accusers sued the government in New York federal court in February 2024, alleging the FBI 'permitted Jeffrey Epstein to sex traffic and sexually abuse scores of children and young women' by failing to 'investigate the reports, tips, and evidence it had of rampant sexual abuse and sex trafficking by Epstein.' FBI leaders say jail video shows Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide (NBC News) Attorney General Bondi Again Says More Epstein Files Are Coming—But Doesn't Give Timeline (Forbes)
