The U.S. Department of Justice submitted a formal notice to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, which is overseeing the Chapter 11 case of defunct 23andMe Holding Co. (Case No. 25-40976), warning that the potential sale of its assets—including a gigantic pool of millions of Americans' genetic data—may trigger a national security review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).

U.S. Attorney Sayler Fleming wrote in a filing that 23andMe is prohibited from selling the genetic data of more than 15 million customers to "covered persons"—companies classified as foreign entities that are 50% or more owned by entities based in countries such as China, Russia, and North Korea.

Fleming's notice does not ask U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Brian Walsh to take action against any potential 23andMe transactions. Instead, the U.S. government is requesting that CFIUS review any sale of genetic data to ensure foreign adversaries are not using shell companies to acquire it.

Safeguarding the gigantic pool of genetic data of Americans is a national security priority because of the increasing risk that precision bioweapons can be designed to target specific genetic traits or ethnic groups, based on shared DNA markers.

For example, if a hostile actor or rogue group linked to Iran or the Chinese Communist Party accessed genomic data, they could develop pathogens that are more virulent or lethal to those with certain genetic traits. 

Last month, James O'Keefe of O'Keefe Media Group stoked maximum fears after releasing a video featuring an undercover journalist speaking with Nathaniel Johnson, a policy advisor at the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

In the footage, Johnson suggested that 23andMe may have already sold off users' genetic data: "Do not give your information to those people [23andMe]... they sell it to other people."

Johnson explained: "There's a clause in their contract, that basically says, like, we can give your information to our shareholders. So that they can do stuff. And all of their shareholders are, like pharmaceutical companies. But some of those pharmaceutical companies are based in other countries, and those pharmaceutical companies in other countries are like the property of, like the Ministry of Defense of Russia. Or, like, owned, by China."

The risks of genetic data being weaponized for biological warfare should be on the minds of the Trump administration as the great power competition with China goes into hyperdrive by the 2030s.

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