Whistleblower alleges CIA offered officials money to change view of COVID origins

Testimony From CIA Whistleblower Alleges New Information on COVID-19 Origins

A whistleblower, identified as a credible senior-level CIA officer, has alleged that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) offered financial incentives to six out of seven analysts who were investigating the origin of COVID-19. Initially, the majority of these analysts concluded that the virus likely originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, but they were allegedly incentivized to change their position in favor of a zoonotic origin.

Chairman Wenstrup and Chairman Turner are requesting all documents related to the CIA's COVID-19 origins review and are seeking a voluntary transcribed interview with former CIA COO Andrew Makridis on September 26, 2023, to investigate any improper influence by the CIA and ensure accountability in the intelligence community.

Read Chairman Wenstrup and Chairman Turner’s letter to CIA Director William Burns here.

These allegations, from a seemingly credible source, requires the Committees to conduct further oversight of how the CIA handled its internal investigation into the origins of COVID-19. To assist the Committees with their investigations, we request the following documents and information as soon as possible, but no later than September 26, 2023.

1. All documents and communications regarding the establishment of all iterations of the COVID Discovery Team(s);

2. All documents and communications between or among the members of all iterations of the COVID Discovery Team(s) regarding the origins of COVID-19;

3. All documents and communications between or among members of all iterations of the COVID Discovery Team(s)

4. All documents and communications between or among members of all iterations of the COVID Discovery Team(s) and employees or contractors of other federal government agencies, including but not limited to the U.S. Department of State, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (to include the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases), and the U.S. Department of Energy regarding the origins of COVID-19;

5. All documents and communications regarding the pay history, to include the awarding of any type of financial or performance-based inc

Read Chairman Wenstrup and Chairman Turner’s letter to former CIA COO Andrew Makridis here.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence in June released a declassified COVID-19 origins report to members of Congress, which analyzed the U.S. intelligence community’s understanding of the Wuhan Institute of Virology at the center of the theory that the pandemic could have come from a lab leak.

The intelligence community has not come to a conclusion on whether the pandemic was spurred by a lab leak or from "natural exposure" by an infected animal—like at one of the wet markets in China.

"All agencies continue to assess that both a natural and laboratory-associated origin remain plausible hypotheses to explain the first human infection," report said.