CIA analysts concluded multiple times that COVID-19 most likely originated from a laboratory, but intelligence leaders repeatedly altered those findings in official summaries later offered to the public, a CIA whistleblower testified Wednesday before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.
James Erdman III, a longtime Central Intelligence Agency operations officer who was recently assigned to a detail investigating COVID origins within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, testified under subpoena that analysts inside the CIA and the broader intelligence community favored a laboratory-origin assessment in the years immediately following the pandemic’s outbreak. But CIA managers suppressed or altered those conclusions, he asserted.
“CIA scientific analysts concluded multiple times between 2021 and 2023 that a lab leak was the most-likely origin of COVID-19,” Erdman said. “Yet those conclusions never shaped the official narrative.”
Erdman also submitted a written statement to the committee elaborating on many of the allegations raised during his testimony, though that document has not been publicly released. According to Erdman and senators during the hearing, the statement included additional details about alleged intelligence community obstruction and oversight concerns.
The hearing, chaired by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), also produced new allegations about internal disputes, conflicts of interest in outside scientific influence and what...
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