CHARLESTON — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has joined a multistate group of Republican state attorneys general in requesting the federal government work with states to hold the Chinese government accountable for the Coronavirus outbreak.
Morrisey joined the other AGs in sending letters recently to both President Donald Trump and congressional leaders outlining the harm they say the COVID-19 pandemic has done to states and the nation. Morrisey and 13 other AGs sent a letter May 13 to Trump. He and 16 other AGs signed the letter May 9 to congressional leaders, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate President Mitch McConnell.
“As the administration evaluates the spectrum of possible actions to take towards (sic) China, a coordinated effort involving all appropriate federal agencies and our states is crucial to ensuring the accountability our citizens deserve,” the May 13 letter to Trump stated. “A comprehensive evaluation of the legal, economic, diplomatic, and security measures that can be employed must be undertaken and for maximum effectiveness states should be included in that process to the extent possible.
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"This will allow us to share information and resources and ensure that any remedy sought takes into consideration our legal capabilities and the devastating impact the virus has had on our states.”
The AGs say citizens deserve to know whether the harm — both in cost of human lives and dollars — could have been prevented, and if so, who should be held accountable.
The group claims the Chinese government may have failed to stop the spread of the virus, misrepresented key information allowing it to spread and engaged in a cover-up to suppress information.
"We are writing to ask for Congressional Hearings into the communist Chinese Government and its role in the COVID-19 pandemic," the AGs wrote to the congressional leaders. "Recent reports suggest that the communist Chinese government willfully and knowingly concealed information about the severity of the virus while simultaneously stockpiling personal protective equipment.
"In what Secretary of State (Mike) Pompeo has described as a ‘classic communist disinformation effort,’ the Chinese government, aided by the World Health Organization, appears to have intentionally misled the world over the last six months."
In asking Trump and Congress to take action to hold China accountable, the AGs say they want to determine what legal options are available to both state and federal governments and how state and federal agencies might work cooperatively together to hold China accountable for this deadly pandemic.
"With some of the new information out there about Chinese companies potentially cornering the market on medical supplies, it’s really important that state agencies get the help of the feds in getting to the bottom of COVID-19," Morrisey said in a statement. "What happened over in China?
"We need to make sure we hold the right people accountable."
Morrisey signed the letter to Trump – led by the AGs from Florida and South Carolina – with AGs from Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Tennessee. He signed the letter to to congressional leaders with all of those AGs except for Tennessee AG Herbert H. Slatery III, and the AGs from Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri and Texas also signed that letter.