Whistleblower: CIA paid analysts to change stance on COVID origin

(NewsNation) — The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic said Tuesday new whistleblower testimony alleges the CIA rewarded six analysts with “significant financial incentives” to change their conclusion of where COVID-19 originated.

In a letter to CIA Director William Burns, the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, along with the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, wrote that a “multi-decade, senior-level, current agency officer has come forward.”

The committees, led by Reps. Brad Wenstrup and Mike Turner, both Republicans representing Ohio, explained that the whistleblower said seven CIA officers were assigned to a team to investigate the origins of COVID-19.

“The team consisted of multi-disciplinary and experienced officers with significant expertise,” the letter said.

According to the whistleblower, at the end of the COVID-19 origins review, six of the seven team members were going to make a low-confidence assessment that COVID-19 originated from a lab in Wuhan, China. But they allegedly came to a different conclusion after the most senior officer on the team believed COVID-19 originated through zoonosis.

The letter from the committees says, “The whistleblower further contends that to come to the eventual public determination of uncertainty, the other six members were given a significant monetary incentive to change their position.”

Wenstrup, who serves as the chairman of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, joined “The Hill on NewsNation” to discuss the whistleblower’s claims.

“They’re allegations and that they are, however, understand that when someone comes forward as a whistleblower and with whistleblower protections, that they are subject to the opportunity for perjury if they’re not telling the truth,” Wenstrup told Blake Burman. “This whistleblower has been there a long time and is a senior person.”

Wenstrup says the allegations require the committees to conduct further oversight of how the CIA handled its investigation into the origins of the virus. It’s why he says the committees requested several documents and communications from the CIA between members of the COVID Discovery Team by Sept. 26.

“We’re seeking all the documents and then communications. Look, I have a good relationship with this current CIA director and I don’t know that this rose to his level, if it is indeed true, but that’s what we need to find out,” Wenstrup said. “We are planning on calling in the former chief operating officer who was named actually as the ringleader, if you will, or someone very much involved with this whole process. So, we have to go for this.”

He continued: “All that we have put out is what the allegations have been, and we’re leaving it at that. But right now, we’re looking for the documents and communications, and we’re going to bring in people to try and get an understanding. I will tell you, the CIA takes this very seriously and they should, we take it very seriously.

“We have an obligation to do oversight. And when a whistleblower comes forward, using all of their protections, they’re taking a risk when they do that. So, we are obligated to follow up on that. I think it’s important.”

At this time, the whistleblower’s claims have not been verified. The federal government still hasn’t definitively declared where COVID-19 started. According to the COVID-19 origins report produced by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the CIA was “unable to determine the precise origin.”