WASHINGTON – On Thursday, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) joined U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, M.D. (R-Ky.) and 17 of their Senate GOP colleagues in sending a follow-up letter to the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), William J. Burns, reiterating previous information requests regarding whistleblower allegations disclosed by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence related to the CIA’s investigation into the origins of COVID-19.

According to a Sept. 2023 letter from the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic (Select Subcommittee) and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), a whistleblower who is a senior-level CIA officer testified that the Agency paid off six analysts that determined COVID-19 likely originated from a lab leak. The letter stated that the CIA assigned seven officers with significant scientific expertise to a COVID Discovery Team. After their review, six of the seven members believed the intelligence and science available were sufficient to make a low confidence assessment that COVID-19 originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, China. The letter asserted that the six members were given a significant monetary incentive to change their position, leading to the CIA’s public determination of uncertainty on COVID-19 origins. 

“These allegations raise serious questions about the Agency’s investigation of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in light of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence June 2023 unclassified report stating that CIA remained ‘unable to determine the precise origin of the COVID-19 pandemic,’” the senators wrote. “The Agency’s refusal to cooperate with requests for information by members of the Senate regarding whistleblower allegations is unacceptable. The CIA has an obligation to be responsive to congressional oversight requests by all members of the Senate regardless of what committees they are assigned to.”

For this reason, the senators are reiterating the following requests for information:

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) and other employees or contractors of the Agency regarding the origins of COVID-19;
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; and
5. All documents and communications relating to any conclusions of the COVID Discovery Team(s) and subsequent revision of such conclusions.

Sens. Johnson and Paul were joined on this letter by Senators Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Ted Budd (R-N.C.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-La.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Lindsey Graham (R-SC).

Read more about the senators’ Jan. 25, 2024 letter to CIA Director Burns in the Daily Caller.

Full text of the letter can be found here. 

Read the senators’ Sept. 12, 2023 letter to CIA Director Burns here. 

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