Whistleblower says CIA officials were paid to change view that COVID originated in Wuhan lab

Most officers on the CIA's COVID Discovery Team concluded that the coronavirus originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, but they changed their positions after receiving a monetary incentive, a senior-level CIA agent told Congress.

The whistleblower informed Coronavirus Pandemic Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Brad Wenstrup and Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Turner that at the end of the CIA's COVID review, "six of the seven members of the Team believed the intelligence and science were sufficient to make a low confidence assessment that COVID-19 originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, China," the Ohio Republicans wrote in a letter Tuesday to CIA Director William Burns.

The team's seventh member, who was the most senior person, was the only person to believe that the virus originated from an animal, the lawmakers also said. 

"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," the chairmen wrote. 

The allegations, which stemmed from a "seemingly credible source" require Congress to investigate how the CIA handled its investigation of COVID's origins, according to the lawmakers.

The Republicans are demanding the CIA hand over information to their committees as part of their probe, and they threatened to use "additional tools and authorities to satisfy our legislative and oversight requirements" if the agency does not comply.

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