Americans could sue the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for trillions of dollars over its coverup of the origins of the pandemic, according to lawyer and economist Jim Rickards.
The pandemic, which has caused four million deaths worldwide including over 600,000 in the United States, was likely caused by a leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), Rickards writes in his book “The New Great Depression: Winners and Losers in a Post-Pandemic World.” Meanwhile, the CCP has continuously tried to hide the source to “deflect responsibility and neutralize trillions of dollars of damage claims,” he continued.
“It’s a crime against humanity and it’s gross criminal negligence,” the author told The Epoch Times.
Americans can thus take the CCP to court in the United States to seek compensation for losses suffered as a result of the pandemic, Rickards said. He estimates that $3 trillion to $4 trillion in damages could be awarded to Americans in future lawsuits against the regime.
According to the author, Americans have grounds to sue under both domestic law, such as tort law and racketeering laws, and international law.
While some legal experts contend that such lawsuits are unlikely to succeed because Beijing can claim sovereign immunity, a legal rule that insulates countries from being sued in other countries’ courts, Rickards thinks this barrier can be overcome.
“Sovereign immunity is a legal doctrine with limitations, not an all-purpose get-out-of-jail-free card,” the author said. “The CCP is a political party, not a sovereign,” he added.
In addition, there are numerous non-sovereign defendants Americans could sue, Rickards said, including “the Wuhan lab itself, individual researchers, individual and corporate suppliers, and U.S. defendants …who aided and abetted the gain-of-function research and gene splicing activities.”
The possibility that the virus leaked from the WIV, dismissed as a conspiracy theory at the start of the pandemic, has since garnered international scrutiny as new evidence has emerged, including how WIV staff became sick with COVID-19-like symptoms before the outbreak. Meanwhile, the Chinese regime has not allowed others access to records at the facility, preventing any meaningful investigation into the virus origins.
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