Heritage Foundation Sues CIA Over COVID-19 Origin Records

Lawsuit alleges the CIA withheld records detailing payments to analysts to downplay lab leak theory; Dr. Anthony Fauci implicated in influencing findings.

The conservative Heritage Foundation's Oversight Project has filed a lawsuit against the CIA, accusing it of withholding records that detail payments to analysts to bury findings that COVID-19 most likely originated from a lab leak.
A whistleblower alleged that the CIA offered payments to six analysts tasked with determining the origins of the virus if they said that the virus jumped from animals to humans.
The Heritage Foundation's Oversight Project filed its FOIA request for records related to the internal CIA analysis on September 20, 2023, but has yet to receive the documents or an explanation for the delay.
Republican Senators wrote a letter to CIA Director William Burns requesting information on the whistleblower allegations.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is alleged to have been secretly escorted into CIA headquarters to influence the findings of the analysts.