House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., sent a new letter to the FBI on Thursday, pressing the agency to turn over documents related to Democrat Vice President nominee Tim Walz and his ties to a China-linked research institute that partners with the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), suspected to be the source of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Comer first sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray on Aug. 16, requesting information about Walz's ties to China while serving as governor of Minnesota. Since that letter, the Washinton Examiner reported on Walz's promotion of the Hormel Institute, which partners with the Chinese Community Party-run WIV.
"The FBI's silence regarding Mr. Walz's documented relations with CCP affiliates is inexcusable," Comer wrote in Thursday's letter.
"Recent reports indicate Mr. Walz, while in Congress, 'helped secure over $2 million' and 'pushed for a $5 million federal earmark' for the Hormel Institute, which is a 'Minnesota-based medical research center with a history of working with the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China,'" Comer wrote to Wray. "The Wuhan Institute of Virology is closely connected to the CCP and has been implicated in the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic."
Walz reportedly has made 30 trips to China, including for his honeymoon and coordinating annual student trips there when he was a teacher at Alliance High School in Nebraska, Comer wrote. Comer said a trip in 1993 was "paid in part by the Chinese government."
Comer also surfaced Walz's time as a fellow at Macau Polytechnic University, which is aligned with China's political warfare program called the Belt and Road Initiative.
Comer said in his letter it potentially adds up to a case of Chinese influence, and he wants those FBI documents by Sept. 19 to investigate.
"The Committee is concerned that Mr. Walz's involvement with Chinese entities and officials may have allowed the CCP to influence his decision-making as a congressman and governor and potentially would allow the CCP to influence the White House should Mr. Walz be elected vice president," Comer wrote.