Senate Republicans are demanding the DOJ sue the Chinese Communist Party over its role in the COVID-19 pandemic

A group of Republican senators is urging the Justice Department to take legal action against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) over its role in the COVID-19 pandemic after federal authorities gave credence to the Wuhan lab leak theory.

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and five other GOP senators sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland Wednesday asking what legal action the DOJ plans to take against the CCP after the US Department of Energy reported “low… Confidence” that the virus that causes COVID-19 is likely to have leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.

“More than 1.1 million Americans have died from COVID-19 in the past three years, and countless more have suffered and continue to suffer physical and economic harm related to the pandemic,” the letter said.

“We are writing to ask what legal action you, as U.S. Attorney General, have taken or are planning to take against the Chinese Communist Party officials responsible for this laboratory leak and/or its cover-up in order to defend the interests of millions of Americans, severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic?”

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Florida Senator Rick Scott, pictured, led five other Republican lawmakers and urged Attorney General Merrick Garland to take legal action against the Chinese Communist Party over its role in the COVID-19 pandemic. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

The Department of Energy’s assessment was reportedly noted in a classified 2021 document updated by the Office of Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines.

The “lab leak theory,” according to which COVID-19 originated from an accidental lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China, has been dismissed as a conspiracy theory and “misinformation” by Democrats, major news outlets, scientists and many other social media companies in the early stages of the pandemic.

Over time, however, circumstantial evidence continues to support the theory, and the alternative natural origin hypothesis held by most scientists has not been definitively proven.

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Republican lawmakers on Wednesday sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland urging the Justice Department to take legal action against the Chinese Communist Party over its role in the COVID-19 pandemic. (Carolyn Kaster/Pool via REUTERS)

According to the Department of Energy, lawmakers from both parties have been pushing for more investigation into the origins of COVID-19. The House and Senate unanimously passed legislation introduced by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., that would direct the Biden administration to release information related to possible links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the origins of the pandemic.

The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic held a hearing on March 8 on the origins of the virus Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield testified that he believes Chinese scientists at the Wuhan lab are involved in gain-of-function research — a branch of scientific experimentation in which pathogens are improved to be more pathogenic or deadly in order to be preventative To develop treatments or vaccines – and that SARS -CoV-2 virus was probably a product of that research that somehow escaped.

In their letter, Republicans urged Garland to hold the Chinese government accountable for its role in the pandemic and asked the DOJ to identify any “legal impediments” to doing so.

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GOP lawmakers encouraged Attorney General Merrick Garland to propose legislation that could help the Justice Department take legal action against China. (iStock)

“We wholeheartedly welcome the opportunity to draft appropriate legislation to remove these obstacles to the pursuit of justice for the millions of Americans who have been harmed by the Chinese Communist Party’s wrongdoing,” the senators wrote.

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The letter was co-signed by Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Mike Braun, R-Ind., Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn.