Illegal Biolabs in California

Hazardous Conditions in California Labs owned by Chinese Nationals

Americans should know that dangerous biological research doesn’t just occur in Wuhan. It is happening in the United States.

We received 29 pages of records through the California Public Records Act confirming that illicit labs owned by Chinese nationals housed biologicals in hazardous and non-compliant conditions, multiple infectious agents, and starving and dead mice. Our investigators also uncovered court documents which detail the deplorable conditions at the lab (which conducted “COVID” research), including photos of dead mice.

The documents were produced by the Fresno County Department of Public Health (FCDPH) in response to a request for:

Records and / or communications maintained by the Fresno County Public Health Department, including emails, email chains, email attachments, text messages, meeting minutes, interviews, voice recordings, video recordings, photographs, correspondence, statements, letters, memoranda, reports, briefings, affidavits, inspections, presentations, notes, or other form of record, regarding Prestige BioTech and Universal Meditech Inc.

Prestige Biotech reportedly runs Universal Meditech, Inc. 

The records show that, on May 31, 2023, Dr. Rais Vohra, then-interim health officer for the Fresno County Department of Public Health, had issued an order to Prestige to close its operations in Reedley, CA, and clean up dangerous materials at the site:

This Order is issued as a result of the City of Reedley’s attempts at gathering authorized representative contact information, repeated requests of complete lists of biologicals present, and an inspection pursuant to Health Officer Order dated April 21, 2023, which revealed biologicals in hazardous and non-compliant conditions, the presence of multiple infectious agents and pursuant to Title 17 California Code of Regulations Section 2500, and multiple City of Reedley building and fire code violations, including but not limited to, failing refrigeration, and documented out of compliance electrical additions.

The records include an August 2023 PowerPoint presentation titled “Healthy Fresno County, Better Together, Reedley Lab Update” written by Fresno Co. Asst. Dir. Joe Prado. The presentation includes a section titled “City of Fresno Chronology of Events,” which reports:

August 26, 2020 – Universal MediTech location experienced a small fire.

August 31, 2020 – Environmental Health CUPA inspection performed at Universal Meditech at 1320 E. Fortune Ave #102 in Fresno.

EH Inspector conducted onsite visit and noted violations: failing to prepare and implement a hazardous materials business plan (HMBP) for storage of hazmat (ethanol) over state thresholds

Permit was completed and valid from 9-1-2020 through 8-31-2021. Inspections are every 3 years from initial inspection, unless complaint is received.

October 31, 2022 – FCDPH staff received a complaint from City of Fresno Code Enforcement and City Fire Department regarding chemicals stored at the Universal MediTech facility in Fresno.

November 1, 2022 – FCDPH staff visited Universal MediTech site at 1320 E. Fortune Ave #102 in Fresno. Were not able to access facility.

November 3, 2022 – FCDPH staff met City of Fresno Code Enforcement officer and property management at facility.

November 8, 2022 – No response from general manager. FCDPH staff again visited Universal MediTech site but were again not able to access facility.

November 8, 2022 – FCDPH staff received an email after visiting facility from Xiao XiaoWang, President/CEO of Universal MediTech Inc. regarding status of facility.

November 10, 2022 – Email response to Xiao Xiao Wang regarding the hazardous materials storage and transportation requirements.

November 23, 2022 – No response back from operators or CEO/President. FCDPH staff visited Universal MediTech facility and were again not able to access facility.

The presentation includes a section titled “Reedley Chronology,” which details the investigation of the lab after it relocated to Reedley, CA:

December 19, 2022 – City of Reedley Code Enforcement Officer contacted FCDPH regarding business found operating at 850 I Street.

December 20, 2022 – Reedley Code Enforcement citing multiple code, building, and zoning violations for business, and had concerns regarding possible hazardous materials stored at facility.

Emails with the Reedley Code Enforcement, CDPH, and FDA to coordinate a response.

Reedley Code Enforcement and FCDPH contacted FBI regarding potential public safety risks.

December 20, 2022 – FCDPH contacted FDA and CDPH requesting assistance regarding suspicious medical test manufacturing company.

December 21, 2022 – FBI coordinated meeting with State, Federal and Local agencies and instructed the agencies to standby until conclusion of their investigation.

January 2023 through February 2023 – Ongoing regular communication with Federal and State agencies.

February 9, 2023 – FCDPH is informed by DTSC that FBI has given State and Local agencies approval to resume civil investigation.

February 9, 2023 – Universal MediTech issues a nationwide recall of its COVID-19 test kits.

February 24, 2023 – Multi-agency meeting to coordinate investigation of Prestige Biotech.

CDPH Food & Drug Branch to take lead on investigation of medical devices.

March 3, 2023 – FCDPH staff met at City of Reedley Fire Department with CDPH, DTSC, City of Reedley Police, Fire, Code Enforcement, and Building Inspector.

***

City of Reedley posted Unsafe to Occupy Notice on front door of building.

***

March 16, 2023 – FCDPH staff met with CDPH, DTSC, and City of Reedley and briefed on inspection warrant.

Met with Consultant for Prestige Biotech.

CDPH Food & Drug Branch staff went through and embargoed the unapproved medical test kits and medical supplies.

***

March 22, 2023 – FCDPH meets with Health Officer, CAO, and BOS member on the Reedley Lab situation.

State and Federal authorities stated that abatement is the County’s responsibility

FCDPH emailed Prestige President requesting complete inventory of all materials onsite that pose a public safety risk.

Communication and requests for inventory continued through April with incomplete and delayed responses from business representative.

***

June 15, 2023 – Filed with Superior Court an Abatement Warrant to destroy all biologicals.

June 23, 2023 – Judge of the Superior Court signs Abatement Warrant.

June 26, 2023 – Abatement warrant issued by Superior Court.

July 5-7, 2023 – Biological materials in approximately 36 refrigerators/freezers were properly removed and transported for destruction by licensed contractor.

***

Under the heading “Next Steps,” the presentation notes that investigations by the health department, FDA, California Department of Public Health, the health department’s Food and Drug Branch, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency were ongoing.

Our investigators also uncovered court documents that include an abatement warrant. Exhibit 2 of the declaration of Code Enforcement Officer Jesalyn Harper contains graphic images of dead mice from the “mouse room” at the Reedley facility:

Upon entering the mouse room, Code Enforcement and Dr. Hahn observed a large amount of mice feces on the floor. It was undeterminable if the feces were from wild mice or if the mice in the cages had begun to kick up feces out of the cages, but photos of the feces were taken regardless because according to Dr. Hahn it was very likely a mixture of both.

Dr. Hahn confirmed the mice were in server distress because of “barbering” taking place, the high number of visible carcasses in the cages, and the lack of “pinkies.” Barbering is a social activity with mice consistent with over grooming. When under stress the dominant mice will begin to rip the hair and skin off the less dominant mice. The lack of pinkies can be related to starvation or stress, because Code Enforcement had been trying to provide adequate food and water it is believed the cannibalism is due to stress.

Dr. Hahn recommended euthanasia due to the animal’s suffering and the lack of ability to provide adequate care for the animals.

In November 2022, we uncovered the Defense Department funding anthrax laboratory activities in Ukraine. The records show over $11 million in funding for the Ukraine biolabs program in 2019.

In June 2022, we uncovered records from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) revealing over two dozen cases where research involving recombinant or synthetic nucleic acid (r/sNA) molecules was conducted in America without proper approval and in violation of NIH guidelines.

In April 2022, we received records and communications from the Federal Select Agent Program (FSAP) that revealed safety lapses and violations at U.S. biosafety laboratories that conduct research on dangerous agents and toxins.

Breaking: Impeachment Inquiry into President Joe Biden

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy initiated an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden this week – a necessary step for accountability and justice. The American people have a right to know whether their president is a crook.

It is well past time for the House to use its full constitutional authority to investigate the catalog of credible allegations of corruption that crosses international borders – from Ukraine to Russia and China.

These Biden corruption issues have created a national security crisis, led to a border invasion, thoroughly corrupted the Justice Department and other federal agencies, and have resulted in wildly abusive efforts to jail former President Trump and other innocents.

This new impeachment inquiry is necessary but not sufficient. Impeachment must be accompanied with a serious effort to defund abuse by Biden’s agencies, and Congress must add oversight to curtail weaponized government.

In the meantime, Judicial Watch will continue its independent investigations and lawsuits into the Biden corruption issues.

We have at least 10 federal lawsuits focused on Biden family corruption.

We are pursuing a lawsuit for information regarding the gun owned by Hunter Biden that reportedly was thrown in a trash can behind a Delaware grocery store.

In June 2023, we sued the CIA for all communications of the spy agency’s Prepublication Classification Review Board (PCRB) regarding an October 19, 2020, email request to review and “clear” a letter signed by 51 former intelligence community officials characterizing the Hunter Biden laptop story as having “all the earmarks of a Russian disinformation campaign.”

In July, we sued the DOJ for records from the Office of the Attorney General and Office of the Deputy Attorney General regarding the Internal Revenue Service investigation of Hunter Biden.

In June 2023, we filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice for a copy of the FBI FD-1023 form that describes “an alleged criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Biden and a foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions.” Judicial Watch also asked for communications about the FD-1023.

In May 2023, we filed a FOIA lawsuit against the National Archives for Biden family records and communications regarding travel and finance transactions, as well as communications between the Bidens and several known business associates.

On October 14, 2022, we sued the DOJ for all records in the possession of FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst Brian Auten regarding an August 6, 2020, briefing provided to members of the U.S. Senate. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) raised concerns that the briefing was intended to undermine the senators’ investigation of Hunter Biden.

We filed a lawsuit against the U.S. State Department on April 20, 2022, for messages sent through the SMART (State Messaging and Archive Retrieval Toolkit) system that mention Hunter Biden.

In December 2020, State Department records obtained through our FOIA lawsuit showed that former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie “Masha” Yovanovitch had specifically warned in 2017 about corruption allegations against Burisma Holdings.

And in October 2020, we forced the release of State Department records that included a briefing checklist of a February 22, 2019, meeting in Kyiv between then-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch and Sally Painter, co-founder and chief operating officer of Blue Star Strategies, a Democratic lobbying firm which was hired by Burisma Holdings to combat corruption allegations. At the time of the meeting, Hunter Biden was serving on the board of directors for Burisma Holdings.

To Prioritize Equity, DHS Anti-Terrorism Funds Go to Underserved Groups

Give the Biden bureaucrats your tax money, and they are likely to transfer it to their favorite special interest groups, rather than for the original purpose, as our Corruption Chronicles blog reports.

To ensure “equity is a key priority,” a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) anti-terrorism program that annually doles out millions of dollars to combat violence in local communities is awarding a substantial chunk of funds to recipients devoted to underserved populations, including a D.C. nonprofit dedicated to empowering lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youth. Launched in 2020, the initiative is called Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention Program (TVTP) and it has disbursed $70 million to help local communities develop and strengthen the capability to fight violence and terrorism. This year the Biden administration is allocating 41% of $20 million in grants to recipients devoted to underserved populations, compared to 25% last year. Awardees include a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) among seven Minority Serving Institutions (MSI), an organization dedicated to indigenous/Native American persons, a group serving LGBTQIA+, and five that help rural communities.

The focus on minorities (underserved populations) appears to have been inspired by last month’s fatal shooting of three black people in northeastern Florida. The gunman, who killed himself, was a 21-year-old mentally ill man who had previously attempted suicide and stopped taking his psychiatric medications. DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas used the shooting to support allocating such a large amount of funds to underserved populations. “As the recent racially-motivated shooting in Jacksonville made painfully clear, targeted violence and terrorism can impact any community, anywhere,” Mayorkas said, adding that his agency is “committed to confronting this threat” by funding programs with communities to prevent “such abhorrent targeted acts from occurring.”

Let’s examine where the agency created after 9/11 to prevent another terrorist attack is sending our taxpayer dollars in the name of combatting violence and terrorism. A Washington D.C. group called Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League is getting $530,000 to address the risk of violence and negative mental health outcomes faced by LGBTQ+ youth in Washington D.C. and Montgomery County, Maryland. The project will provide in-school support for LGBTQ+ youth, training for school staff and youth service providers, resilience programming for LGBTQ+ youth ages 6-24, and support for parents and caregivers. The D.C. nonprofit claims to empower LGBTQ+ youth in the area through leadership and opportunities to build self-confidence, develop critical life skills and community engagement. The more than half a million dollars will help raise societal awareness by employing a “community-level and behavioral health approach,” according to the TVTP grant document.

Other notable grants will go to the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Medicine which is getting nearly $1 million to also raise societal awareness and create youth resilience programs by partnering with clinicians, researchers and staff to reduce the risk of future violence. The program “will focus on training and capacity building around diversity, equity, and inclusion practices.” Boise State University will receive $265,000 to supplement human rights educationfor kids and teenagers in underserved, rural communities by improving individuals’ abilities to understand violent content. A Boston organization will receive $1,140,067 to mitigate misogynistic, racially, and ethnically motivated violent extremism among at-risk students. The University of Texas, El Paso is getting nearly $300,000 to create a social media campaign that includes multiple cultures and languages to counter the rise of online radicalization. The University of California, Irvine is receiving almost $700,000 to provide tools and training for elementary, high school and college students to participate in diverse coalitions that reach national audiences to target violence and terrorism. Among the goals is to strengthen diverse civic engagement.

Last year $7 million in anti-terrorism grants went to nonprofits, local governments, and academic institutions to promote media literacy and combat what the Biden administration considers to be “disinformation.” Among the recipients was a center founded by former President Jimmy Carter to implement a “media literacy curriculum” designed to mitigate the harms presented by disinformation. The University of Rhode Island got $701,612 to combat disinformation, conspiracy theories and propaganda and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars received $750,000 to create an “educational digital game” designed to help students understand different strategies used to spread disinformation and combat it at the institutional level. The Urban Rural Action, a group that strives for a “more inclusive democracy” across ideological and racial differences, got $769,190 to create a “Local Prevention Framework.”

 

DHS Loses Track of Illegal Immigrants it Releases in U.S., Many Give Fake Address

They’re not even trying any more to secure our southern border. Our Corruption Chronicles blog details the lack of effort in tracking illegals.

Not only has illegal immigration exploded under the Biden administration, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) fails to track migrants it is supposed to monitor after releasing them in the U.S. Incredibly, the agency created after 9/11 to prevent another terrorist attack is not making much of an effort to find the missing foreigners who in thousands of cases were freed despite not providing the agency with a valid domestic address or after furnishing a bogus location including car dealerships, bus stations, restaurants or churches.

Between March 2021 and August 2022, DHS lost track of more than 177,000 migrants inside the country, according to a scathing report issued recently by the DHS Office of Inspector General. The watchdog found that 80% of addresses provided to the U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) by migrants were recorded at least two times and 54,000 were simply left blank. More than 780 addresses were used over 20 times and seven were recorded by federal officials over 500 times, apparently without raising any red flags. Some of the addresses were charities or federal government agencies. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) also got trashed in the report for failing to always validate migrant addresses prior to releasing them into communities throughout the United States.

In all, DHS released more than a million migrant individuals and families into the U.S. during the recent 18-month period examined in the probe. Investigators stress in the report that it is critical to properly track the individuals. “ICE must be able to locate migrants to enforce immigration laws, including to arrest or remove individuals who are considered potential threats to national security,” the IG writes in the report, which has several redactions. “The notable percentage of missing, invalid for delivery, or duplicate addresses on file means DHS may not be able to locate migrants following their release into the United States,” the report continues.“As the Department continues to apprehend and release tens of thousands of migrants each month, valid post-release addresses are essential.”

DHS releases more than 60,000 illegal immigrants into the U.S. every month, according to the agency watchdog, and the figure will probably grow. “In addition to migrants not providing U.S. release addresses, DHS faced several challenges hindering its ability to record and validate migrant addresses as required,” the probe found. “USBP did not accurately and effectively capture valid addresses, in part due to the large number of migrants apprehended, as well as its limited coordination with ICE and its limited authority to administer compliance with address requirements.” The document further explains that “ICE also did not have adequate resources to validate and analyze migrants’ post-release addresses.” As an example, the IG offers that ICE deportation officers at one field office were responsible for 35,000 migrant cases post-release, averaging to about three minutes of staff time per case annually.

It has been widely reported that when it comes to the famously porous southwest border DHS has not done a very good job of fulfilling its mission. What many Americans may not know is that, in the last few years, the agency has made the problem even worse by dispersing hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants throughout the U.S. under a Biden administration program that issues migrants a Notice to Report (NTR) and trusts them to show up for hearings. Not surprisingly, many vanish, and the government tries to keep the stats from the public. Last year a Wisconsin senator obtained startling DHS figures showing that, during a five-month period, the Biden administration relocated 273,396 illegal immigrants throughout the United States and issued north of 100,000 NTRs to an ICE field office within 60 days. More than 50,000 illegal aliens failed to show up for their hearing with federal authorities by ignoring the government issued NTR that has become the laughingstock of the nation’s immigration system.

Until next week,

Tom Fitton