A career CIA operations officer testified under oath that the U.S. intelligence community downplayed evidence suggesting COVID-19 may have originated from a laboratory incident in China, leading to what he described as a cover-up that affected public policy and national security decisions.

James Erdman III, who served on joint duty assignment at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence from March 2025 through April 2026, testified about his involvement leading investigations into COVID origins, anomalous health incidents and unidentified anomalous phenomena.

“Thank you for the complimentary introduction, and I appreciate the committee's dedication to transparency and accountability,” Erdman said at the beginning of his testimony.

Erdman identified himself as a longtime intelligence officer and described his role within the ODNI’s Directors Initiatives Group, commonly referred to as the DIG.

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“I am a career CIA operations officer, and as you mentioned, I was on joint duty assignment at the Office of Director National Intelligence directors initiatives group or the dig between March 2025, and April 2026,” Erdman said.

According to Erdman, he oversaw investigative work examining the origins of COVID-19 and related national security issues.

“I was responsible for leading the digs investigation into covid origins, anomalous health incidents and unidentified anomalous phenomena,” Erdman said.

Erdman testified that intelligence officials minimized the possibility that the pandemic stemmed from a laboratory incident in China.

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“I'm here today to discuss the covid cover up, the national security implications associated with the digs investigative findings and CIA refusal to comply with lawful oversight, as well as how we remedy these problems,” Erdman said.

He claimed intelligence community leadership failed to properly present the lab leak possibility during internal assessments and public discussions.

“Intelligence community leaders and senior analysts downplayed the possibility that the covid pandemic originated as a result of a lab incident,” Erdman said.

Erdman said motives behind those decisions were difficult to determine but argued the result was a failure to properly inform policymakers and the American public.

“Motives are difficult to define, given the scope of the digs review, intentional or not, the ICS actions resulted in a cover up wasted resources and a failure to properly inform policy makers,” Erdman said.

According to Erdman, public health decisions may have changed if the public had been informed earlier about the possibility of a lab-related origin tied to China.

“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 products being mandated by the former Administration,” Erdman said.

Erdman also directly accused Dr. Anthony Fauci of influencing the intelligence community’s analytical process regarding COVID origins.

“Dr fauci's role in the cover up was intentional,” Erdman said.

He alleged Fauci used his influence to shape which scientific experts and public health officials intelligence agencies consulted during the investigation process.

“Dr Fauci influenced the analytical process and findings by leveraging his position to ensure the IC consulted with a conflicted list of curated subject matter experts, public health health officials and scientists,” Erdman said.

Erdman testified that several experts consulted during the process had longstanding professional relationships connected to Fauci.

“This included some of the authors of the paper the proximal origin of SARS cov, two and other public health experts who have been in his orbit for the last 20 plus years,” Erdman said.

He also stated that some of the scientists involved were part of the biological sciences experts group consulted during the investigation.

“Some of the scientists were part of the biological sciences experts group,” Erdman said.

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