Washington, DC — The United States Congress revealed on Tuesday that a whistleblower from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has come forward and that they claim the agency offered members of a team investigating the origins of COVID-19 “significant monetary incentives” to change their position from one of knowing it originated from a lab leak in Wuhan, China, to not being able to determine the origin.
The House Coronavirus Subcommittee Chairmen, Brad Wenstrup, and the House Intelligence Committee, Mike Turner, sent letters to the CIA and a former official to confirm the whistleblower’s claims.
In the letters, they explained that a “multi-decade, senior-level, current agency officer” had provided evidence of the CIA’s investigation into the origins of COVID-19.
The whistleblower reported that seven members had formed the COVID Discovery Team. All of them were said to hold scientific expertise, and 6 out of the 7 had come to a low-confidence assessment that the virus had originated from a lab leak in Wuhan. The remaining members stood firm in believing it had spread through natural means.
Despite the majority opinion, the second member appears to have influenced the CIA’s public conclusion of “uncertainty” regarding the virus’ true origin. This individual allegedly offered the other 6 members “significant monetary incentives” to change their position away from the lab leak theory.
Chairman Wenstrup and Turner hope to further investigate this situation by requesting documents and communications relating to this case from the CIA. This includes records on the COVID Discovery Team’s establishment and documentation on communications between team members and other government agencies, such as the FBI and the Department of Health and Human Services.
The chairmen also asked for the pay history of all members, with special attention to any financial bonus given to those individuals who changed their assessment regarding the virus’ origin.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence had previously released a declassified report to members of Congress in June, in which members of the intelligence community could not conclude whether the pandemic had spread naturally from an animal or a laboratory leak.
The National Intelligence Council and other intelligence community agencies had determined that COVID-19 was not genetically engineered, nor had it been developed as a biological weapon.
The whistleblower’s new accusations put the CIA in a difficult position. Their credibility is now called into question by their own alleged actions, as they sought to influence and manipulate the members of the COVID Discovery Team to shape the public’s perception of the virus’ origin.
We must wait and see the results of the Congressional investigation before we can be sure of the CIA’s integrity.
