Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, leaves a meeting of the House Republican Conference at the Capitol Hill Club on Wednesday, July 26, 2023. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
The classified materials sent to the committee contain "highly pertinent information that credibly suggests COVID-19 originated from a lab-related accident in Wuhan, China," Wenstrup wrote in the letter, which was obtained by Fox News Digital.
Wenstrup said the documents also suggest that the Chinese Communist Party "acted to prevent, and in fact obstructed, a fulsome investigation into these matters."
The documents also suggest a "seamless relationship" between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and Chinese People’s Liberation Army, according to Wenstrup.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. (Reuters/Evelyn Hockstein/Pool)
The State Department did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
President Biden signed the COVID-19 Origin Act of 2023 last year, which required the government to declassify information on what may have led to the pandemic.
US FUNDED RESEARCH TO CREATE 'MUTANT VIRUSES' AT WUHAN LAB AHEAD OF COVID-19, RECORDS SHOW
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a declassified report in June 2023 which said the intelligence community has not come to a conclusion on whether the pandemic was spurred by a lab leak or from "natural exposure" of an infected animal — like at one of the wet markets in China.
"All agencies continue to assess that both a natural and laboratory-associated origin remain plausible hypotheses to explain the first human infection," the report said.
Red flags flutter in front of the Great Hall of the People before the annual two sessions on March 4, 2022 in Beijing, China. The fifth session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) opens on March 4. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)
FORMER INTELLIGENCE CHIEF SAYS A LAB LEAK IS THE 'ONLY EXPLANATION' FOR COVID
The National Intelligence Council and four other intelligence community agencies have assessed that natural contact with a wild animal was the most likely cause.
The U.S. Energy Department and the FBI have determined that COVID-19 likely emerged from a lab leak in China.
The report said the CIA and another unnamed agency haven't come to a conclusion, "as both hypotheses rely on significant assumptions or face challenges with conflicting reporting."
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But "almost all" of the agencies have assessed it was not "genetically engineered" and the entire intelligence community agrees that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, was "not developed as a biological weapon," the report stated.
Brooke Singman is a political correspondent and reporter for Fox News Digital, Fox News Channel and FOX Business.
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https://www.foxnews.com/politics/classified-docs-credibly-suggest-covid-originated-wuhan-lab-leak-covered-up-ccp-house-rep