CIA employee James Erdman testified Wednesday to a Senate panel that Dr. Anthony Fauci improperly influenced intelligence reports on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic in order to downplay findings that it most likely resulted from a lab leak in China. 

Erdman's testimony comes after the statute of limitations for prosecution expired Monday and former President Joe Biden also pardoned Fauci, which shielded the former chief medical advisor to Biden from criminal referral for allegedly lying to Congress about gain-of-function research.

Erdman claimed Fauci intentionally participated in the "cover-up" of the COVID-19 origins, stating that he personally provided “a conflicted list of curated subject matter experts, public health officials and scientists” to the US Intelligence Community, according to the New York Post.

“Analytic managers responsible for examining the origin of COVID made decisions inconsistent with the conclusions of subject matter experts and analytical tradecraft, consistently favoring the theory of zoonosis or natural origin," Erdman said.

Erdman also testified that Fauci, who served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, directly inserted himself into IC deliberations about the outbreak of COVID-19 twice. The first time was on Feb. 3, 2020, and again on June 4, 2021, in order to push the "natural origin" narrative. 

Erdman's testimony comes after he was subpoenaed by the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.