Ebright recently made national headlines when he responded to The Intercept's FOIA dump of more than 900 documents showing that Dr. Anthony Fauci lied in front of Congress about the NIH funding gain-of-function research in Wuhan.

"The documents make it clear that assertions by the NIH Director, Francis Collins, and the NIAID Director, Anthony Fauci, that the NIH did not support gain-of-function research or potential pandemic pathogen enhancement at WIV are untruthful," Ebright wrote about the Intercept data dump earlier this month.

Given his prestige, knowledge of the subject matter and willingness to criticize Dr. Fauci publicly despite residing in academia, I wanted to reach out to Dr. Ebright and get him to expound on his thoughts about Covid-19.

Here is my exclusive interview with Ebright.

Q: Hi, Richard. You're recently well known for your comments regarding the Intercept FOIA request, claiming it was proof Dr. Fauci definitively lied about funding gain of function research. Do you personally believe this was a nefarious cover up or a warranted situation of Fauci trying to do the right thing by not bringing these details forward?

A: It is plausible Fauci was unaware of the content of the EcoHealth/WIV grant proposals and progress reports before February 2020. But it is not plausible Fauci was unaware of the content of the EcoHealth/WIV proposals and progress reports after February 2020. Fauci lied - knowingly, willfully and brazenly - in his two exchanges with [Sen. Rand] Paul.