CIA scientists repeatedly concluded that COVID-19 most likely leaked from a Chinese lab — and were pushed to revise those findings until the conclusion disappeared, a whistleblower told Congress Wednesday.
James Erdman III, a career CIA operations officer who recently completed a COVID-19 study for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, testified that Dr. Anthony Fauci helped shape which outside experts the agency consulted — steering officials toward scientists who had already dismissed the lab-leak theory.
“It’s not like he’s saying you will go talk to them,” Mr. Erdman said. “It’s just that the bureaucracy in place at the time was perfectly happy to pursue those recommendations.”
In a 2022 internal review, eight of 10 CIA personnel — including seven subject-matter experts — leaned toward a lab leak. They were ordered to revise the report. Six of seven experts still supported the lab-leak conclusion. The final version was changed to say the agency could not identify the origin “precisely.”
“They changed the conclusion,” Mr. Erdman said.
He called the episode a “cover-up, wasted resources and a failure to properly inform policymakers.”
Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican and committee chairman, noted the CIA didn’t publicly back the lab-leak theory until after the 2024 election.
“That is not analysis, that is a cleanup operation,” Mr. Paul said.
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