State Department 'civil war' emails reveal how top official warned colleagues probing Wuhan lab theory and Fauci's involvement they risked 'embarrassing and discrediting themselves'
Top officials in the State Department accused each other of 'playing games', behaving recklessly, and risking embarrassing the United States during a heated debate over how aggressively to pursue the 'lab leak' theory to explain the pandemic.
A series of emails from January this year show a civil war within the State Department, as Donald Trump insisted he had seen evidence that COVID-19 escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, and the scientific community remained adamant that Trump's theory was unlikely. They have now reversed course, and the 'lab leak' idea is gaining more legitimacy.
Amid the highly-charged political atmosphere, Chris Ford, a former Navy intelligence officer who since 2018 was acting undersecretary for Arms Control and International Security, accused his colleague of being too quick to back the 'lab leak' idea.
Ford told Thomas DiNanno, former acting assistant secretary of the Bureau of Arms Control, Verification, that his team risked embarrassing the United States by aggressively pushing unverified information about Chinese culpability.
Chris Ford, of the Arms Control and International Security division of the State Department (left), had a heated email exchange with his colleague Thomas DiNanno (right), from the Bureau of Arms Control, Verification. Ford pressed DiNanno for outside verification of his team's findings - DiNanno pushed back, asking Ford to be specific about his doubts
Ford and DiNanno were part of a team investigating whether COVID-19 escaped from the Wuhan laboratory (above), rather than evolved naturally and passed from animals to humans
'We need to make sure what we say is solid and passes muster from real experts before we risk embarrassing and discrediting ourselves in public,' Ford said.
He said a presentation made to him in early January contained 'not-exactly-confidence-inspiring arguments', which he said would not stand up to scrutiny.
Ford accused DiNanno of being obstructive and unprofessional, telling him that he did not have the scientific background necessary to evaluate the claims.
'I do not have the scientific expertise necessary to critique the claims,' he wrote, in a January 6 email obtained by Fox News. 'And nor do you.'
Ford pressed DiNanno repeatedly to assemble a panel of outside experts to evaluate the findings before they were presented to the world, even accusing DiNanno's team of spreading the unverified information.
'Why are you guys briefing folks around the interagency on your claims in advance of any such vetting?' Ford asked.
Ford accused DiNanno of being reluctant to seek independent verification of their claims, telling him that the 'burden of proof' lay with his department.
'Your bureau needs to shoulder that burden, or stand down,' Ford said.
'Please stop playing games and ducking responsibility. It is discreditable.'
