In The News 28 July 2026

Sen. Paul releases documents showing CBP prepared to question and search Peter Daszak – until the FBI stepped in

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, has released documents showing that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) prepared a formal targeting action to question and search Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance, upon his return to the United States from the World Health Organization’s investigation into the origins of COVID-19 — before the FBI intervened and asked agents to stand down.

The documents show CBP’s National Targeting Center flagged Daszak as “an extremely high person of interest” ahead of his Feb. 5, 2021, arrival at JFK, citing his more than 15 years of collaboration with the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) and his role as principal investigator on NIH grants funding bat coronavirus research in China. Internal CBP records state that “much of the funding DASZAK receives is put toward gain of function research.”

CBP built out a formal targeting event and scheduled a Tactical Terrorism Response Team exam, with plans to question Daszak on his activities in China, his contacts at WIV, and whether he collected or carried biological samples.

Three days before his arrival, CBP received a request from the FBI’s New York Field Office: do not stop the subject. 

The inspection never took place.

The documents are now available to the public at https://www.paul.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/2026.07.17_Dasza… and in The Reading Room at paul.senate.gov/readingroom.
 

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