CIA whistleblower alleges Biden admin buried COVID-19 lab leak analysis

CIA whistleblower James Erdman III testified that the Biden administration buried analysis concluding a lab leak was the most probably origin of the COVID-19 pandemic in an explosive listening to on Wednesday.

Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Rand Paul, R-Ky., stated Erdman, a two-decade CIA veteran, selected to testify on the alleged cover-up at “great personal risk” as a result of “government secrecy cannot become government impunity.”

Paul’s oversight panel had subpoenaed Erdman’s testimony and beforehand interviewed him in a labeled setting. Erdman labored in a joint position with the Director of National Intelligence’s Director’s Initiatives Group (DIG) to research COVID origins over the previous 12 months.

“According to his testimony, CIA scientific analysts concluded multiple times between 2021 and 2023 that a lab leak was the most likely origin of COVID-19,” Paul stated in his opening assertion. “Yet those conclusions never formed the official narrative, never made the intelligence report. Congress was never told.”

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“It was not until after the 2024 election that the outgoing Biden administration directed the CIA to issue an assessment, not because of new intelligence, but so officials could walk out of the door claiming there was nothing left to find,” the Kentucky Republican added. “That is not analysis. That is a cleanup operation.”

Erdman publicly testified earlier than the panel regardless of fierce opposition from the CIA, which known as the COVID origins listening to “political theater.”

Paul’s committee, in line with CIA consultant Liz Lyons, “acted in bad faith by subpoenaing an agency officer for testimony today without notifying CIA, despite having already obtained closed-door testimony from the individual previously.

“The witness testifying at the moment shouldn’t be showing as a whistleblower in pursuit of the reality, however as an alternative in response to the subpoena issued by Chairman Paul,” Lyons added in a statement.

Carol Thompson, Erdman’s attorney, told reporters Wednesday that her client was concerned about retaliation by the CIA, but declined to comment further.

Erdman alleges Fauci helped suppress COVID origins, prompting calls for criminal prosecution

Following Erdman’s testimony, several GOP legislators called for former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director Dr. Anthony Fauci to face criminal prosecution for allegedly seeking to suppress the origins of COVID-19.

“It was considerably influenced by Anthony Fauci, injecting himself into the IC [intelligence community]”Erdman said when asked by Paul whether the CIA downplayed the likelihood that COVID-19 emerged from a lab leak.

“We simply heard testimony that he intervened behind the scenes to attempt to get our personal intelligence company, CIA, FBI to alter their evaluation of the lab leak,” Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., told Fox News. “Why? Because he helped fund the Wuhan lab. He supported and funded gain-of-function analysis, after which he tried to cowl it up, after which he labored to cowl it up from the American folks.”

“I hope he is indicted,” Hawley added.

The listening to on Wednesday got here after a statute of limitations deadline for Fauci to face legal costs relating to that testimony handed earlier this week.

“Whether the DOJ decides to cost Fauci or not, I’m not letting up,” Paul wrote on social media Monday.

Sen. Rand Paul talks to reporters before entering the Senate chamber to vote at the US Capitol on March 4, 2026. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

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Paul has long called for Fauci to be indicted for allegedly lying to Congress about gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China, linked to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fauci has vigorously denied the allegations.

“I’ve despatched a number of legal referrals on Anthony Fauci to the Justice Department,” Paul said Wednesday. “And I hope they are going to be pursued right now.”

Former President Joe Biden Notoriously issued an unprecedented preemptive pardon to Fauci with just hours left in his term. President Donald Trump has declared that pardon null and void because it was signed via autopen, but his administration has yet to make that argument in court.

Dr. David Morens, a former senior advisor to Fauci, was indicted by a federal grand jury last month for allegedly concealing the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

GOP Sen. Ron Johnson demands apology from CIA Director Ratcliffe

A handful of Republicans who have long pushed for answers on the pandemic’s origins excoriated the CIA for characterizing the hearing as politically motivated and aiming to undermine the president.

“This continuing quantities to nothing greater than dishonest political theater masquerading as a congressional listening to,” CIA representative Lyons said in a statement preceding the hearing. “As the CIA has already assessed, COVID-19 most probably originated from a lab leak, and efforts to undermine that conclusion are disingenuous.”

The agency’s scathing statement was a notable display of Republican infighting between the Trump administration and the GOP-controlled Senate.

“This shouldn’t be political theater,” Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., stated in a fiery response to CIA condemning Lyons. “I’ve years and years and years of built-up frustration of businesses just like the CIA, Department of Justice, the FBI, HHS snubbing our oversight, giving us the large center finger.”

Sen. Ron Johnson speaks throughout a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee listening to within the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, DC, on Feb. 12, 2026. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

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Paul additionally objected to the CIA’s objections to Erdman testifying in a public listening to, stating, “Closed-door testimony does not present oversight. Public testimony supplies oversight.”

Democrats boycott hearing, sparking GOP backlash

Senate Republicans on the influential committee blasted their Democratic colleagues for not taking the time to listen to Erdman’s testimony.

Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., the panel’s top-ranking Democrat, and the six other Democratic legislators on the committee did not attend Wednesday’s hearing.

“Nothing shocks me anymore with our colleagues from the opposite facet of the aisle, however I’m shocked that not one in all them confirmed up right here,” Johnson told Erdman.

“This is severe oversight work,” he added. “This is what the American folks must see. And I simply want our Democrat colleagues had any degree of curiosity about what’s occurring contained in the deep state.”

Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, argued that Democrats intentionally chose to skip the hearing so they would not have to reckon with policy mistakes made during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This is not about politics, however someway it is turn into about politics as a result of the Democrats do not even need to hear the dialog about what was clearly a severe mistake that this nation made throughout COVID,” he said during the hearing. “There’s by no means been a state of affairs, actually not in my lifetime, the place you had choices made that affected generations of Americans, youngsters that had been completely disadvantaged of their childhood, companies that had been destroyed, households that had been torn aside, reminiscences that you will by no means get again, trillions of {dollars} of financial loss.”

Sen. Gary Peters, a Democrat from Michigan, speaks in throughout a listening to in Washington, DC, on Nov. 17, 2022. (Ting Shen/Bloomberg through Getty Images)

GOP SAYS DEMS ADMIT ‘GUILT’ IN BIDEN HEALTH COVER-UP BY BOYCOTTING SENATE HEARING ON ‘CONSTITUTIONAL SCANDAL’

CIA didn’t adjust to COVID origins investigation, Erdman allegations

Erdman additionally alleged the INC intentionally put up roadblocks to stifle his group’s investigation into COVID origins while spying on and retaliating against whistleblowers.

“The CIA didn’t adjust to lawful oversight through the DIG’s investigation,” Erdman told the ruling. “The CIA refused to offer data crucial to know why analytical requirements on the CIA had been violated.”

Erdman claimed the CIA illegally spied on DIG personnel and their communications with whistleblowers.

“These had been Americans being spied upon illegally whereas executing duties directed by the president and beneath the authority of the Director of National Intelligence,” Erdman continued.

The alleged retribution led to the agency firing one contractor who cooperated with investigators, Erdman said Wednesday.

Thompson, Erdman’s attorney, said she hoped her client’s testimony would encourage more whistleblowers to come forward and shed light on the CIA allegedly obstructing investigators.

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“There has been obstruction by these intelligence businesses, precluding these people from having the ability to conduct the investigation,” Thompson, Erdman’s attorney, told reporters.

“We have principally a scientific effort to violate the legal guidelines of Congress, to mislead the American folks, to mislead the American folks. And it is nonetheless occurring,” Hawley told reporters on Wednesday. “If you’ve got received individuals who will simply not observe the legal guidelines of Congress and lie overtly to the American folks, I do not know how one can hope to protect our nation.”