A career CIA operations officer sat before the Senate on Wednesday and accused Dr. Anthony Fauci, under oath, of intentionally influencing the intelligence community’s investigation into the origins of COVID-19. James E. Erdman III, a 20-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency, was the sole witness at the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing chaired by Senator Rand Paul. The hearing was titled “Whistleblower Testimony on the COVID Coverup” and took place in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on May 13, 2026. His testimony was direct: Erdman alleged that Fauci’s role in the COVID origins cover-up was not an accident. He called it intentional. 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 According to Erdman’s sworn testimony, CIA scientific analysts repeatedly concluded that a laboratory leak was the most likely origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, but those conclusions were buried, softened, or withheld from Congress and the American public. The Senate Homeland Security Committee released Senator Paul’s opening statement framing the stakes of the hearing: Paul told the committee it would hear testimony that CIA scientific analysts had concluded a lab leak was the most likely origin of COVID-19 but that those findings were buried, softened, or withheld from Congress. He described a web of outside scientific advisers spanning NIH, CIA, ODNI, and the National Academies, arguing that a panel known as the Biological Sciences Experts Group was compromised because some of its members had ties to Wuhan-related gain-of-function research. Paul placed Fauci at the center of the government side of that circle, saying documents show Fauci was brought into national-security discussions and reviewed highly classified intelligence assessments on COVID origins, all while having approved the very funding tied to the research questions under investigation. The chairman argued that Congress and the American public were denied a full accounting of what the intelligence community actually found. Erdman did not hold back. According to the Washington Examiner, his testimony laid out how Fauci allegedly used his position to steer the intelligence community toward a natural-origin narrative: James Erdman, identified as a two-decade CIA veteran and career operations officer, told the Senate committee that Fauci was involved in shaping the intelligence community’s COVID origins report toward a natural-origin conclusion rather than the lab-leak finding its own analysts had reached. Erdman alleged that Fauci influenced the analytic process by leveraging his position to ensure the intelligence community consulted a curated list of subject-matter experts and public-health officials who were themselves conflicted on the question. Erdman went further, testifying that he believed American public-health policy would have been different if the public had been told a lab-origin virus was being used as the foundation for emergency-use mRNA products mandated by the former administration. The Washington Examiner also reported that CIA spokeswoman Liz Lyons responded to the hearing by accusing Paul’s committee of acting in bad faith, calling the proceeding “political theater,” while simultaneously acknowledging that the CIA has already assessed COVID-19 most likely originated from a lab leak. Fauci has previously denied accusations that he lied about NIH funding related to Wuhan Institute of Virology research and has argued that the work in question did not meet the threshold for gain-of-function research. Think about the CIA’s response for a moment. The agency attacked the hearing as political theater while admitting its own assessment now points to a lab leak. If the lab-leak conclusion was right all along, the obvious question is why it was suppressed for years and who was responsible for suppressing it. That is exactly what Erdman came to answer. Perhaps the most revealing detail of the day had nothing to do with testimony. Not a single Democrat on the committee showed up. @RandPaul's office to me: "No Democrats showed. They don’t care to dismantle the deep state." Not a single Democrats attended the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee where a CIA whistleblower testified on the COVID coverup. @DailyCaller pic.twitter.com/wfRoDBT5Ih — Nicole Silverio (@NicoleMSilverio) May 13, 2026 The Daily Caller confirmed the absence: Daily Caller reporter Nicole Silverio reported that Democrats did not attend the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing where CIA employee James E. Erdman III testified about Fauci’s alleged role in covering up COVID origins. The report framed the absence as a striking political moment because the hearing was not a routine messaging session; it centered on sworn testimony from an active CIA officer about whether intelligence findings on the pandemic’s origin were softened or suppressed before Congress and the public received them. Silverio also posted that Senator Paul’s office responded to the empty seats by saying Democrats did not show and did not care to dismantle the deep state. That is an attributed political charge, not a proven motive, but the optics were hard to miss. A witness was describing an alleged multi-agency failure around a pandemic that reshaped the country, and the minority side was not there to cross-examine him, challenge his claims, defend Fauci, or demand the declassified records that could settle the question publicly. For years, Democrats told the country that questions about a lab leak were conspiracy theories, misinformation, and even racist. Now that a CIA officer is saying under oath that the lab-leak conclusion was real and was intentionally buried, the same party that demanded “follow the science” will not even show up to hear the science. After the hearing, Senator Paul spoke about where the investigation goes from here, including whether the evidence could lead to criminal exposure for Fauci. COVID coverup back in the spotlight—@RandPaul joins @ScottJenningsKY after explosive testimony from a CIA whistleblower and shares how it could expose Anthony Fauci to possible criminal charges. pic.twitter.com/ozlxSYQtbS — Scott Jennings Show (@JenningsShow) May 13, 2026 Fauci has consistently denied wrongdoing, maintaining that NIH-funded research tied to the Wuhan Institute of Virology did not constitute gain-of-function work and that he did not mislead Congress. Those denials now sit beside sworn testimony from a career intelligence officer with two decades inside the CIA. The American people spent years being told to trust the experts. On Wednesday, a career intelligence officer put a very different account on the record under oath. The question now is whether Congress and the Justice Department will follow that record wherever it leads.