Top 4 explosive moments from CIA whistleblower's testimony on alleged COVID-19 lab leak cover-up
CIA whistleblower James Erdman III testified that the Biden administration buried analysis concluding a lab leak was the most likely origin of the COVID-19 pandemic in an explosive hearing on Wednesday.
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Rand Paul, R-Ky., said Erdman, a two-decade CIA veteran, chose to testify on the alleged cover-up at "great personal risk" because "government secrecy cannot become government impunity."
Paul’s oversight panel had subpoenaed Erdman’s testimony and previously interviewed him in a classified setting. Erdman worked in a joint role with the Director of National Intelligence’s Director’s Initiatives Group (DIG) to investigate COVID origins over the past year.
"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 said in his opening statement. "Yet those conclusions never shaped 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 before the panel despite fierce opposition from the CIA, which called the COVID origins hearing "political theater."
Paul’s committee, according to CIA spokeswoman 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 today is not appearing as a whistleblower in pursuit of the truth, but instead 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.
Following Erdman’s testimony, several GOP lawmakers 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 significantly 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 just heard testimony that he intervened behind the scenes to try and get our own intelligence agency, CIA, FBI to change their assessment 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 research, and then he tried to cover it up, and then he worked to cover it up from the American people."
"I hope he’s indicted," Hawley added.
The hearing on Wednesday came after a statute of limitations deadline for Fauci to face criminal charges regarding that testimony passed earlier this week.
"Whether the DOJ decides to charge Fauci or not, I’m not letting up," Paul wrote on social media Monday.
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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 sent several criminal referrals on Anthony Fauci to the Justice Department," Paul said Wednesday. "And I hope they will be pursued at this time."
Former President Joe Biden notably 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.
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 proceeding amounts to nothing more than dishonest political theater masquerading as a congressional hearing," CIA spokeswoman Lyons said in a statement preceding the hearing. "As the CIA has already assessed, COVID-19 most likely 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 is not political theater," Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said in a fiery response to CIA spokeswoman Lyons. "I have years and years and years of built-up frustration of agencies like the CIA, Department of Justice, the FBI, HHS snubbing our oversight, giving us the big middle finger."
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Paul also objected to the CIA’s objections to Erdman testifying in a public hearing, stating, "Closed-door testimony doesn't provide oversight. Public testimony provides oversight."
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 lawmakers on the committee did not attend Wednesday’s hearing.
"Nothing shocks me anymore with our colleagues from the other side of the aisle, but I'm shocked that not one of them showed up here," Johnson told Erdman.
"This is serious oversight work," he added. "This is what the American people need to see. And I just wish our Democrat colleagues had any level of curiosity about what's happening inside 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 isn't about politics, but somehow it's become about politics because the Democrats don't even want to hear the conversation about what obviously was a grave error that this country made during COVID," he said during the hearing. "There's never been a situation, certainly not in my lifetime, where you had decisions made that affected generations of Americans, kids that were absolutely deprived of their childhood, businesses that were destroyed, families that were torn apart, memories that you'll never get back, trillions of dollars of economic loss."
Erdman also alleged the CIA intentionally put up roadblocks to stifle his group’s investigation into COVID origins while spying on and retaliating against whistleblowers.
"The CIA did not comply with lawful oversight during the DIG's investigation," Erdman told lawmakers. "The CIA refused to provide information necessary to understand why analytic standards at the CIA were violated."
Erdman claimed the CIA illegally spied on DIG personnel and their communications with whistleblowers.
"These were Americans being spied upon illegally while executing duties directed by the president and under 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.
"There has been obstruction by those intelligence agencies, precluding those individuals from being able to conduct the investigation," Thompson, Erdman’s attorney, told reporters.
"We have basically a systematic effort to violate the laws of Congress, to lie to the American people, to mislead the American people. And it's still going on," Hawley told reporters on Wednesday. "If you've got people who will just not follow the laws of Congress and lie openly to the American people, I don't know how you can hope to preserve our country."