{"id":2603425,"date":"2026-05-16T07:12:01","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T11:12:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/cia-whistleblower-alleges-coverup-of-covid-19-lab-leak-intelligence\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T07:14:59","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T11:14:59","slug":"cia-whistleblower-alleges-coverup-of-covid-19-lab-leak-intelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/cia-whistleblower-alleges-coverup-of-covid-19-lab-leak-intelligence\/","title":{"rendered":"CIA Whistleblower Alleges Coverup of COVID-19 Lab Leak Intelligence"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcia-whistleblower-alleges-coverup-of-covid-19-lab-leak-intelligence%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2603425&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The U.S. CIA officer and whistleblower James E. Erdman III testified to Congress that the CIA initially accepted scientific views that COVID-19 likely resulted from a lab accident, but that more senior officials suppressed or rewrote those findings. Erdman said this process reduced the impact of an assessment by seven CIA subject-matter experts and was later modified to express uncertainty about the origins of SARS\u2011CoV\u20112. He also alleged obstruction by the CIA, including denial of documents, surveillance of members of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/2-killed-officer-among-4-injured-in-idaho-mall-shooting\/\" title=\"2 killed, officer among 4 injured in Idaho mall shooting\">task force investigating<\/a> possible analytic misconduct, and firing a witness after committee interviews.<\/p>\n<p>Erdman further claimed that influence from researcher networks associated with figures like Anthony Fauci shaped intelligence assessments, citing advisory and scientific groups that he said downplayed the lab-accident conclusion while emphasizing natural origins. He told lawmakers that thousands of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/even-bill-maher-is-slamming-bidens-shady-handing-of-classified-docs\/\" title=\"Even Bill Maher Is Slamming Biden\u2019s \u201cShady... Handing of Classified Docs\">related classified documents<\/a> must still pass through multiple intelligence agencies before they can be released, noting that a 2023 law requiring declassification of relevant materials was not fully followed. The hearing was criticized by CIA personnel and communications staff as political \u201ctheater,\u201d while Sen. Rand Paul emphasized that oversight should occur publicly and pointed to subpoenas seeking data from multiple agencies.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><br \/>\n<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\"><br \/>\n<?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><html><body><\/p>\n<section> \t\t\t\t<script>console.log(\"ad slot (AC1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC2)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC3)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC4)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (REP_0)\")<\/script><\/p>\n<p>Spy scientists repeatedly concluded that a lab accident caused the COVID-19 pandemic but more senior bureaucrats watered down and suppressed their conclusions, a CIA senior operations officer testified to Congress on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>The CIA officer and whistleblower, James E. Erdman III, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hsgac.senate.gov\/hearings\/whistleblower-testimony-on-the-covid-coverup\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">described<\/a> under oath in a hearing called by Sen. Rand Paul on Wednesday a pattern of obstruction that promoted the conclusions of a tight knit group of virologists close to Anthony Fauci while downplaying the conclusions of the intelligence community\u2019s own biological experts.<\/p>\n<p>Erdman recently departed from a task force organized by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to dig into whether the CIA violated its own analytic standards in its assessment of the cause of the deadliest pandemic in a century.<\/p>\n<p>Even from that perch \u2014 Gabbard\u2019s office ostensibly oversees the CIA \u2014 Erdman faced continued bureaucratic stonewalling from the spy agency.<\/p>\n<p>As Erdman and Gabbard dug into the apparent coverup, the CIA denied the task force documents, illegally surveilled its members and fired one of its witnesses the day after the committee interviewed that witness, the whistleblower testified.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCoincidentally, whenever the CIA investigates itself it never finds any wrongdoing,\u201d Erdman said. \u201cThe accountability piece has to happen or this is just going to keep happening.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fauci and the CIA didn\u2019t immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n<p>About seven CIA subject matter experts concluded the origin of the COVID pandemic to be a lab accident during a 90-day assessment of the evidence ordered by former President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n<p>But when the experts delivered their scientific analysis to the intelligence community\u2019s National Counterproliferation and Biosecurity Center, it made little impact with the <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >bureaucratic higher-ups<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Erdman said the analysis was countered with a new report and that its conclusion underwent a \u201cmiddle of the night rewrite\u201d to read: \u201cWe never precisely know the origins of SARS-CoV-2.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added that the use of the word \u201cprecisely\u201d deviates from the standard practice at CIA, which is to make imprecise assessments and assign them a confidence level of low, moderate or high confidence.<\/p>\n<p>The change was made sometime in the five days between Aug. 12, 2023, and Aug. 17, 2023, but Gabbard\u2019s team was not able to access the necessary documents to find out why.<\/p>\n<p>These CIA experts received exceptional performance reviews and bonuses sometime after that.<\/p>\n<p>Paul also cited the Biological Sciences Experts Group (BSEG), an advisory panel to the intelligence community on biological weapons.<\/p>\n<p>University of North Carolina virologist Ralph Baric, a close collaborator of the Wuhan Institute of Virology on <a href=\"https:\/\/usrtk.org\/covid-19-origins\/scientists-proposed-making-viruses-with-unique-features-of-sars-cov-2-in-wuhan\/\">engineering coronaviruses like SARS-CoV-2<\/a>, who <a href=\"https:\/\/usrtk.org\/covid-19-origins\/fauci-discussed-gain-of-function-work-with-wuhan-collaborator-in-pandemics-earliest-days-s-suggest\/\">met with Fauci<\/a> in February 2020, serves on the BSEG.<\/p>\n<p>The Daily Caller News Foundation first reported the role of the BSEG and NCBC in suppressing COVID intelligence last year.<\/p>\n<p>Despite overseeing a civilian agency at the National Institutes of Health, Fauci injected himself into the intelligence community\u2019s assessments through his influence over the BSEG and by advising the National Intelligence Council to consult his own handpicked scientists, Erdman said.<\/p>\n<p>s <a href=\"https:\/\/usrtk.org\/covid-19-origins\/visual-timeline-proximal-origin\/\">published through the Freedom of Information Act<\/a> have shown that Fauci worked closely with a clique of virologists who stressed the pandemic must have arisen naturally despite expressing private concerns about a lab leak.<\/p>\n<p>Erdman testified there are 2,000 classified documents related to COVID\u2019s origins that Gabbard is working to get released, but they must be run through the intelligence community\u2019s many agencies to ensure they do not reveal sources and methods. Congress passed a law in 2023 mandating the declassification of intelligence related to the WIV, but Biden\u2019s intelligence chief Avril Haines flouted that law.<\/p>\n<p>Erdman testified in response to a subpoena from Paul\u2019s Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs. The testimony dragged out into the open the behind-the-scenes tension between Gabbard\u2019s office and Paul versus the CIA and its Trump-appointed director, John Ratcliffe.<\/p>\n<p>Ratcliffe\u2019s communications director Liz Lyons lambasted the hearing as \u201cpolitical theater.\u201d Lyons stressed that Erdman had already given closed door testimony to the committee. Paul stressed that real congressional oversight happens in public view.<\/p>\n<p>Paul\u2019s committee issued <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hsgac.senate.gov\/media\/reps\/dr-paul-issues-subpoenas-to-fourteen-agencies-regarding-covid-19-origins-and-risky-gain-of-function-research\/\">subpoenas to 14 agencies<\/a> related to the COVID origins issue in January 2025. Erdman said that Gabbard has sought to be responsible, but that ODNI has not received all of the responsive documents from CIA or from the State Department\u2019s intelligence arm, which <a href=\"https:\/\/usrtk.org\/covid-19-origins\/virologist-under-investigation-for-misleading-briefed-intel-community\/\">leaned on scientists close to Fauci<\/a> in its assessment.<\/p>\n<div class=\"disclaimer\">\n<p>All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. 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