CIA Whistleblower to Testify on Alleged Efforts to Obscure COVID-19 Origins

A longtime intelligence community employee will testify Wednesday that officials continue to obscure the origins of COVID-19, according to Sen. ). The two-decade veteran was detailed to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, where he worked on a recently disbanded director’s initiative group that studied how the pandemic started in Wuhan, China, Paul said in an interview with The Post.

The witness is expected to state that there are people still within the agency that were trying to obscure the truth, trying to withhold documents, and that the agency spied on and eavesdropped on his group. It remains unclear when the alleged spying on the review group occurred or what evidence will be presented at the hearing of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, which Paul chairs.

The witness is also expected to testify that agency leadership in 2021 quashed an expert assessment that COVID-19 likely leaked from a Wuhan lab. That position was not adopted until last year. >"I think it was six to one that the virus, they believed, came from the lab.

Their conclusion was then overridden by mid-level or senior people. " — Sen. Rand Paul (New York Post) Paul did not share the man’s name. The Post was unable to verify the allegations, which the Kentucky senator summarized ahead of the hearing. Spokespeople for the agency and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Paul said the witness “has an impeccable record and reputation” and comes forward at great risk to his career. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in more than 1 million American deaths after emerging in late 2019 in Wuhan, China.

Research and Intelligence Involvement

The U.S. government helped finance risky gain-of-function research that genetically modified bat coronaviruses in Wuhan. Paul told The Post that the intelligence community is intricately involved with this research. Paul has been frustrated in his attempts to acquire documents about the pandemic despite a 2023 law authorizing declassification of records.

He said he does not see much hope that President Trump could persuade Chinese President Xi Jinping to provide greater transparency when they meet in Beijing during the first state visit by an American leader in nearly a decade. “I think that there’s very little that Chinese will ever admit to,” Paul said.