NO SMOKING GUN

Spy Agencies Told White House There’s No Evidence to Prove Virus Began in Wuhan Lab, Says Report

CIA analysts have reportedly resisted pressure from the Trump administration to blame China for the pandemic that’s now killed more than 60,000 Americans.

U.S. intelligence agencies are resisting pressure from the Trump administration to blame China for the coronavirus outbreak due to a lack of hard evidence, The New York Times reports. Senior Trump administration officials have reportedly pushed spy agencies to look for evidence to support the dubious theory that the virus outbreak began in a laboratory in the city of Wuhan. But the agencies have reportedly seen no evidence of a link to any lab, and scientists believe it’s overwhelmingly likely that that the virus leapt from animal to human in a nonlaboratory setting. Anthony Ruggiero, the head of the National Security Council’s bureau tracking weapons of mass destruction, is reported to have become frustrated in a January videoconference that the CIA refused to get behind any theory of the outbreak’s origin. But CIA analysts are said to have responded that they did not have the evidence to back any one theory, with the Times saying their judgment was based in part that no signs had emerged that Beijing officials believed the outbreak came from a lab.