FBI Chief Says Wuhan "Lab Incident" Led To COVID-19

FBI director Christopher Wray on Tuesday spoke publicly for the first time on the bureau's assessment that the COVID-19 virus "most likely" originated from a potential lab incident in Wuhan, China, Alexander Mallin reported for ABC News.

Photo Insert: Wray also faulted the Chinese government for trying to thwart the work of US agencies investigating the beginnings of the global pandemic.

He also faulted the Chinese government in an interview with Fox News' Bret Baier for, he said, trying to thwart the work of US agencies investigating the beginnings of the global pandemic.

"The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan," he said.

Wray's comments came after a report in the Wall Street Journal, not independently confirmed by ABC News, that a new Department of Energy assessment has found the virus was most likely the result of a lab leak in Wuhan, but it did so with "low confidence," compared with the FBI's "most likely" finding with "moderate confidence."

While the DOE assessment, which the New York Times reported was based on new intelligence, is in line with the FBI's, four other US agencies believe the virus was a result of natural transmission and that the virus, known as SARS-CoV-2, jumped from animals to humans at a wet market. Two other agencies are undecided.

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