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

CIA whistleblower James Erdman III said the Biden administration buried an analysis concluding a lab leak was the most likely origin of the COVID-19 pandemic during an explosive hearing Wednesday.

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

Paul’s oversight committee had subpoenaed Erdman’s testimony and previously questioned him in a confidential setting. Erdman worked jointly with the director of the Director of National Intelligence Initiatives Group (DIG) to investigate the origins of COVID over the past year.

“According to his testimony, CIA scientific analysts repeatedly concluded between 2021 and 2023 that a laboratory leak was the most likely origin of COVID-19,” Paul said in his opening statement. “Yet these findings never shaped the official narrative, were never the subject of an intelligence report. Congress was never informed of them.”

CIA whistleblower James Erdman III, a senior operations officer, takes the oath of office during a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, May 13, 2026. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

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“It was only after the 2024 election that the outgoing Biden administration ordered the CIA to release an assessment, not because of new intelligence, but so that officials could come out and say there was nothing more to find,” the Kentucky Republican added. “It’s not an analysis. It’s a clean-up operation.”

Erdman testified publicly before the panel despite fierce opposition from the CIA, which called the hearing on the origins of COVID “political theater.”

Paul’s committee, according to CIA spokeswoman Liz Lyons, “acted in bad faith by subpoenaing an agency agent to testify today without informing the CIA, despite having obtained closed-door testimony from the individual previously.”

“The witness testifying today does not appear to be a whistleblower seeking the truth, but rather in response to the subpoena issued by President Paul,” Lyons added in a statement.

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

Erdman Alleges Fauci Helped Suppress Origins of COVID, Sparking Calls for Criminal Prosecution

Following Erdman’s testimony, several Republican 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.

“He was heavily influenced by Anthony Fauci, who injected himself into the IC. [intelligence community]” Erdman said when Paul asked whether the CIA downplayed the likelihood of COVID-19 emerging from a lab leak.

“We just heard testimony that he intervened behind the scenes to try to get our own intelligence agency, the CIA and the 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 gets charged,” Hawley added.

Wednesday’s hearing came after a statute of limitations for Fauci to face criminal charges related to that testimony given earlier this week.

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

Senator Rand Paul speaks with reporters before entering the Senate chamber to vote at the U.S. 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, related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fauci has vigorously denied these allegations.

“I have sent several criminal referrals against Anthony Fauci to the Department of Justice,” Paul said Wednesday. “And I hope they get prosecuted at that point.”

Former President Joe Biden notably granted an unprecedented preemptive pardon to Fauci just hours into his term. President Donald Trump declared the 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 last month by a federal grand jury for allegedly covering up the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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A handful of Republicans who have long demanded answers about the origins of the pandemic criticized the CIA for characterizing the hearing as politically motivated and aimed at undermining the president.

“This proceeding is nothing more than dishonest political theater disguised as a congressional hearing,” CIA spokeswoman Lyons said in a statement ahead of the hearing. “As the CIA has previously assessed, COVID-19 most likely originated from a laboratory leak, and efforts to refute this conclusion are disingenuous.”

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

“This is not political theater,” said Sen. Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, in a fiery response to CIA spokeswoman Lyons. “I have years and years and years of pent-up frustration with agencies like the CIA, the Department of Justice, the FBI, HHS snubbing our oversight and giving us the middle finger.”

Senator Ron Johnson speaks during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, DC, February 12, 2026. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

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Paul also objected to the CIA’s objections to Erdman’s testimony in a public hearing, saying, “Closed-door testimony does not provide oversight.” Public testimony provides oversight. »

Democrats boycott hearing, sparking GOP backlash

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

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

“Nothing shocks me anymore with our colleagues across the aisle, but I am shocked that none of them showed up here,” Johnson told Erdman.

“This is serious monitoring work,” he added. “That’s what the American people need to see. And I just wish our Democratic colleagues would be curious about what’s going on inside the deep state.”

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

“This isn’t about politics, but somehow it’s become an issue about politics because Democrats don’t even want to hear the conversation about what was obviously a big mistake that this country made during COVID,” he said during the hearing. “There has never been a situation, certainly not in my lifetime, where decisions have been made that have affected generations of Americans, children who have been absolutely robbed of their childhood, businesses that have been destroyed, families torn apart, memories that you will never get back, billions of dollars in economic loss.”

Senator Gary Peters, a Democrat from Michigan, speaks during a hearing in Washington, DC, November 17, 2022. (Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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CIA Failed to Comply with COVID Origins Investigation, Erdman Claims

Erdman also alleged that the CIA intentionally set up roadblocks to stifle his group’s investigation into the origins of COVID, while spying on and retaliating against whistleblowers.

“The CIA failed to comply with legal oversight during the DIG investigation,” Erdman told lawmakers. “The CIA has refused to provide the information necessary to understand why the CIA’s analytical standards were violated.”

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

“These were Americans illegally spied on while carrying out tasks ordered by the president and under the authority of the director of national intelligence,” Erdman continued.

The alleged retaliation led the agency to fire a contractor who had cooperated with investigators, Erdman said Wednesday.

Thompson, Erdman’s lawyer, said she hoped her client’s testimony would encourage more whistleblowers to come forward and shed light on the CIA’s alleged obstruction of investigators.

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“There were obstructions by these intelligence agencies, preventing these individuals from conducting the investigation,” Thompson, Erdman’s lawyer, told reporters.

“We basically have a systematic effort to violate the laws of Congress, to lie to the American people, to mislead the American people. And it continues,” Hawley told reporters Wednesday. “If you have people who are disrespecting the laws of Congress and blatantly lying to the American people, I don’t see how you can hope to preserve our country.”