The Central Intelligence Agency, whose very existence implies a regime of secrets, has objected to an act of transparency.
According to Bill Melugin of Fox News, the CIA on Wednesday accused Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, of acting “in bad faith” by issuing a subpoena to an alleged CIA whistleblower who then testified to Dr. Anthony Fauci’s “intentional” role in a COVID-19 origins cover-up.
Special operations officer James Erdman III appeared before Paul’s committee on Wednesday.
According to the New York Post, Paul lauded Erdman III as a former Army Ranger who has worked with the State Department and, more recently, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
None of that endeared the Kentucky senator to Erdman III’s current employer.
“They are not happy with the way this hearing is going down,” Melugin said of the CIA in a clip of a live report from Capitol Hill posted to the social media platform X. “They are accusing Senator Rand Paul and the Senate Homeland Security Committee of, quote, ‘acting in bad faith’ in putting this hearing together.”
Moments later, Melugin read a CIA statement.
“The Committee acted in bad faith by subpoenaing an Agency officer for testimony today without notifying CIA, despite having already obtained closed-door testimony from the individual previously,” the statement began.
“The witness testifying today is not appearing as a whistleblower in pursuit of the truth, but instead in response to the subpoena issued by Chairman Paul,” the statement continued. “This proceeding amounts to nothing more than a dishonest political theater masquerading as a congressional hearing. As the CIA has already assessed, COVID-19 most likely originated from a lab leak, and efforts to undermine that conclusion are disingenuous.”
Then, before the committee hearing, Melugin asked Paul for a response to the CIA statement. The senator replied by touting “transparency” and asserting that “we [the federal government] over-classify everything.”
Paul also demanded that the CIA “obey the law” and reveal its COVID-19 intelligence.
The senator has spent more than a week warning that the Justice Department must act to hold Fauci accountable. Otherwise, the statute of limitations for criminal charges will soon expire.
That fact undoubtedly played a role in the timing of Wednesday’s hearing.
JUST IN: Tensions flare between the CIA and Sen. Rand Paul over a COVID-19 whistleblower hearing.
The agency is reportedly “not happy,” accusing Paul of acting in bad faith as he pushes forward with testimony tied to the virus’s origins.
Paul fires back, telling @BillMelugin_… pic.twitter.com/uSaKpeqsDH
— Fox News (@FoxNews) May 13, 2026
Meanwhile, Erdman III testified that Fauci’s alleged cover-up of COVID-19’s origins affected everything, including the COVID vaccine.
“Public health policy would have been very different had the American public been made aware that a virus from a lab in China was going to serve as the foundation for an emergency use authorization mRNA product’s being mandated by the former administration,” Erdman III told Paul’s committee in another clip posted to X.
Moreover, Fauci allegedly exercised direct influence on the intelligence community.
“Dr. Fauci’s role in the cover-up was intentional,” Erdman III continued. “Dr. Fauci influenced the analytical process and findings by leveraging his position to ensure the IC [intelligence community] consulted with a conflicted list of curated subject-matter experts, public health officials, and scientists.”
BREAKING: “Dr. Fauci’s role in the cover-up was intentional.”
CIA whistleblower James Erdman III lays out the “cover-up” of the COVID pandemic, claiming scientists and analysts were skewed from the start, all stemming from Dr. Anthony Fauci.
“Public health policy would have… pic.twitter.com/1G6JJSXyi2
— Fox News (@FoxNews) May 13, 2026
Likewise, when Paul asked Erdman III if anyone at CIA took into account Fauci’s own conflict of interest in suppressing the lab-leak theory when Fauci himself had helped fund the Wuhan lab in question, the witness, in another clip posted to X, replied that “no one laid it out quite that clearly.”
Moments later, Erdman III testified that Fauci “significantly influenced” the CIA’s original neutral position on the lab-leak theory.
“It was significantly influenced by Anthony Fauci’s injecting himself into the IC,” the witness said.
CIA whistleblower James Erdman III testifies that Dr. Fauci inserted himself into the 2021 intelligence community review of COVID-19 origins, citing conflicts of interest over NIH-funded research at Wuhan. pic.twitter.com/kCsHi9P3mu
— TFTC (@TFTC21) May 13, 2026
Readers who wish to view Erdman III’s entire opening statement may do so below.
BOMBSHELL: Here is the entire opening statement from CIA whistleblower James Erdman lll. He testifies that Dr. Fauci’s role in the COVID cover-up was INTENTIONAL.
He stacked the intelligence community’s analysis with conflicted scientists funded by NIAID who pushed the natural… pic.twitter.com/S1ZP9FlZGl
— Andrew Kolvet (@AndrewKolvet) May 13, 2026
The CIA, which has no independent constitutional standing, answers to Congress. It cannot, therefore, negotiate with legislators acting “in bad faith” or otherwise.
In its statement, the Agency did not indicate why it objected to Erdman III’s public testimony.
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