"We've released never before seen emails showing Dr Fauci may have concealed information about #COVID19 originating from the Wuhan lab and intentionally downplayed the lab leak theory," Representatives James Comer and Jim Jordan said in a Twitter message. "[We] want Fauci under oath. Time for answers."
Excerpts from the emails revealed that Dr Fauci was warned of two things: the potential that the COVID-19 virus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the possibility that the virus was intentionally genetically manipulated, Comer and Jordan wrote in their letter.
"It is imperative that we investigate if this information was conveyed to the rest of the government and whether the information would have changed the US response to the pandemic," the congressmen wrote.
Comer and Jordan formally requested an on-the-record, transcribed interview with Fauci to discuss the information.
Having sent a fact-finding mission to Wuhan last year, the World Health Organization concluded that a lab leak was "extremely unlikely." WHO experts said that the virus was transmitted to humans from animals that may have consumed bats.
In October, US intelligence released a declassified report on the origins of COVID-19, concluding that the virus had not been developed as a biological weapon. The intelligence community remains divided on the most likely origin of the virus.
China itself has repeatedly denied the lab leak theories.