AG Curtis Hill supports state-federal partnership to hold China accountable for COVID-19 pandemic

Attorney General Curtis Hill is calling for a federal-state partnership to develop a comprehensive plan to hold the communist government of China responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic.

He and 13 other state attorneys general sent a letter to President Donald Trump proposing a partnership to explore legal avenues to holding China responsible for the public health and economic damage caused by its withholding of information — and dissemination of misinformation — as COVID-19 spread in China and beyond.

“Based on publicly available information, China may have failed to provide information or provided misinformation that contributed significantly to the spread of this virus,” the letter states. “It is incumbent upon the federal government and us as the chief legal officers of our States to pursue whether China failed to stop the spread of this virus.”

Last week, Attorney General Hill called on Congress to investigate the Chinese government’s role in the pandemic.

It is well documented that the novel coronavirus originated in Wuhan, China. It is also widely reported that Chinese medical professionals attempted to warn the public of the highly contagious nature of COVID-19 but were silenced by the country’s communist regime.

Since COVID-19 entered the United States, more than 80,000 Americans — including more than 1,400 Hoosiers — have died from the disease.

In addition to the rising death toll, damage to the economy is also increasing. Domestic and international trade has been drastically curtailed in an effort to contain the spread of the virus. The national unemployment rate has skyrocketed from 3.5% in February to its current rate of 14.7%.

“The consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic have been disastrous. We must investigate whether the communist Chinese government suppressed information about this deadly virus and whether the egregious harm this virus has caused could have been prevented,” Attorney General Hill said.