CIA whistleblower James Erdman III testified that the Biden administration buried analysis concluding a lab leak was the most likely origin of the COVID-19 pandemic in an explosive hearing on Wednesday.

Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Rand Paul, R-Ky., said Erdman, a two-decade CIA veteran, chose to testify on the alleged cover-up at “great personal risk” because “government secrecy cannot become government impunity.” 

Paul’s oversight panel had subpoenaed Erdman’s testimony and previously interviewed him in a classified setting. Erdman worked in a joint role with the Director of National Intelligence’s Director’s Initiatives Group (DIG) to investigate COVID origins over the past year.

“According to his testimony, CIA scientific analysts concluded multiple times between 2021 and 2023 that a lab leak was the most likely origin of COVID-19,” Paul said in his opening statement. “Yet those conclusions never shaped the official narrative, never made the intelligence report. Congress was never told.”

CIA whistleblower James Erdman III, a senior operations officer, is sworn in during a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., May 13, 2026. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

WHO IS JAMES ERDMAN III? CIA WHISTLEBLOWER WHO WENT FROM COVID MANDATE FIGHTS TO SENATE SPOTLIGHT

“It was not until after the 2024 election that the outgoing Biden administration directed the CIA to issue an assessment, not because of new intelligence, but so officials could walk out of the door claiming there was nothing left to find,” the Kentucky Republican added. “That is not analysis. That is a cleanup operation.”

Erdman publicly testified before the panel despite fierce opposition from the CIA, which called the COVID origins hearing “political theater.”

Paul’s committee, according to CIA spokeswoman Liz Lyons, “acted in bad faith by subpoenaing an agency officer for testimony today without notifying CIA, despite having already obtained closed-door testimony from the individual previously.

“The witness testifying today is not appearing as a whistleblower in pursuit of the truth, but instead in response to the subpoena issued by Chairman Paul,” Lyons added in a statement. 

Carol Thompson, Erdman’s attorney, told reporters Wednesday that her client was concerned about retaliation by the CIA, but declined to comment further.

Erdman alleges Fauci helped suppress COVID origins, prompting calls for criminal prosecution

Following Erdman’s testimony, several GOP lawmakers called for former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director Dr. Anthony Fauci to face criminal prosecution for allegedly seeking to suppress the origins of COVID-19. 

“It was significantly influenced by Anthony Fauci, injecting himself into the IC [intelligence community],” Erdman said when asked by Paul whether the CIA downplayed the likelihood that COVID-19 emerged from a lab leak.

“We just heard testimony that he intervened behind the scenes to try and get our own intelligence agency, CIA, FBI to change their assessment of the lab leak,” Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., told Fox News. “Why? Because he helped fund the Wuhan lab. He supported and funded gain-of-function research, and then he tried to cover it up, and then he worked to cover it up from the American people.”

“I hope he’s indicted,” Hawley added.

The hearing on Wednesday came after a statute of limitations deadline for Fauci to face criminal charges regarding that testimony passed earlier this week.

“Whether the DOJ decides to charge Fauci or not, I’m not letting up,” Paul wrote on social media Monday.

Sen. Rand Paul talks to reporters before entering the Senate chamber to vote at the U.S. Capitol on March 4, 2026. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

‘HELD ACCOUNTABLE’: SEN. RAND PAUL AGAIN VOWS TO ISSUE A CRIMINAL REFERRAL FOR FAUCI

Paul has long called for Fauci to be indicted for allegedly lying to Congress about gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China, linked to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fauci has vigorously denied the allegations.

“I’ve sent several criminal referrals on Anthony Fauci to the Justice Department,” Paul said Wednesday. “And I hope they will be pursued at this time.”

Former President Joe Biden notably issued an unprecedented preemptive pardon to Fauci with just hours left in his term. President Donald Trump has declared that pardon null and void because it was signed via autopen, but his administration has yet to make that argument in court.

Dr. David Morens, a former senior advisor to Fauci, was indicted by a federal grand jury last month for allegedly concealing the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

GOP Sen. Ron Johnson demands apology from CIA Director Ratcliffe

A handful of Republicans who have long pushed for answers on the pandemic’s origins excoriated the CIA for characterizing the hearing as politically motivated and aiming to undermine the president.

“This proceeding amounts to nothing more than dishonest political theater masquerading as a congressional hearing,” CIA spokeswoman Lyons said in a statement preceding the hearing. “As the CIA has already assessed, COVID-19 most likely originated from a lab leak, and efforts to undermine that conclusion are disingenuous.”

The agency’s scathing statement was a notable display of Republican infighting between the Trump administration and the GOP-controlled Senate.

“This is not political theater,” Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said in a fiery response to CIA spokeswoman Lyons. “I have years and years and years of built-up frustration of agencies like the CIA, Department of Justice, the FBI, HHS snubbing our oversight, giving us the big middle finger.”

Sen. Ron Johnson speaks during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 12, 2026. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

HOUSE REPUBLICANS ACCUSE BIDEN’S FBI OF RETALIATING AGAINST WHISTLEBLOWER WHO EXPOSED MISCONDUCT

Paul also objected to the CIA’s objections to Erdman testifying in a public hearing, stating, “Closed-door testimony doesn’t provide oversight. Public testimony provides oversight.”

Democrats boycott hearing, sparking GOP backlash

Senate Republicans on the influential committee blasted their Democratic colleagues for not taking the time to listen to Erdman’s testimony.

Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., the panel’s top-ranking Democrat, and the six other Democratic lawmakers on the committee did not attend Wednesday’s hearing. 

“Nothing shocks me anymore with our colleagues from the other side of the aisle, but I’m shocked that not one of them showed up here,” Johnson told Erdman.

“This is serious oversight work,” he added. “This is what the American people need to see. And I just wish our Democrat colleagues had any level of curiosity about what’s happening inside the deep state.”

Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, argued that Democrats intentionally chose to skip the hearing so they would not have to reckon with policy mistakes made during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This isn’t about politics, but somehow it’s become about politics because the Democrats don’t even want to hear the conversation about what obviously was a grave error that this country made during COVID,” he said during the hearing. “There’s never been a situation, certainly not in my lifetime, where you had decisions made that affected generations of Americans, kids that were absolutely deprived of their childhood, businesses that were destroyed, families that were torn apart, memories that you’ll never get back, trillions of dollars of economic loss.”

Sen. Gary Peters, a Democrat from Michigan, gavels in during a hearing in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 17, 2022. (Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

GOP SAYS DEMS ADMIT ‘GUILT’ IN BIDEN HEALTH COVER-UP BY BOYCOTTING SENATE HEARING ON ‘CONSTITUTIONAL SCANDAL’

CIA failed to comply with COVID origins investigation, Erdman alleges

Erdman also alleged the CIA intentionally put up roadblocks to stifle his group’s investigation into COVID origins while spying on and retaliating against whistleblowers.

“The CIA did not comply with lawful oversight during the DIG’s investigation,” Erdman told lawmakers. “The CIA refused to provide information necessary to understand why analytic standards at the CIA were violated.”

Erdman claimed the CIA illegally spied on DIG personnel and their communications with whistleblowers.

“These were Americans being spied upon illegally while executing duties directed by the president and under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence,” Erdman continued.

The alleged retribution led to the agency firing one contractor who cooperated with investigators, Erdman said Wednesday. 

Thompson, Erdman’s attorney, said she hoped her client’s testimony would encourage more whistleblowers to come forward and shed light on the CIA allegedly obstructing investigators.

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“There has been obstruction by those intelligence agencies, precluding those individuals from being able to conduct the investigation,” Thompson, Erdman’s attorney, told reporters. 

“We have basically a systematic effort to violate the laws of Congress, to lie to the American people, to mislead the American people. And it’s still going on,” Hawley told reporters on Wednesday. “If you’ve got people who will just not follow the laws of Congress and lie openly to the American people, I don’t know how you can hope to preserve our country.”

Five weeks before the birth of her third child, Grace Drexel sat in Washington speaking about her father, the grandfather her children barely know, and the hope that President Donald Trump might help bring him home.

Her father, Pastor Ezra Jin, has spent the past seven months detained in China alongside dozens of other Christian leaders in what advocates describe as one of the largest crackdowns on an underground Protestant church in recent years.

Now, as Trump visits Beijing for meetings with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Drexel says her family is clinging to a rare moment of hope after Trump publicly pledged to raise Pastor Jin’s imprisonment directly with Xi.

PRESIDENT TRUMP MUST PUT AMERICAN HOSTAGES FIRST IN HIGH-STAKES BEIJING SUMMIT

Ezra Jin Mingri, head pastor of the Zion Church, poses in Beijing on Sept. 12, 2018, days after officials shut down one of China’s largest underground Protestant churches. (Fred Dufour/AFP via Getty Images)

“I’ll bring it up,” Trump told a reporter when asked whether he planned to discuss the detained pastor during the trip.

“It’s such a tremendous honor,” Drexel told Fox News Digital. “To have one of the most powerful men in the world know my father by name and mention his case to General Secretary Xi Jinping.”

White House spokesperson Olivia Wales told Fox News Digital, “There is no greater champion for religious freedom around the world than President Trump.”

For Drexel, this could end years of suffering. Her family has been separated for almost a decade — her mother and younger brothers fled China in 2018 after authorities shut down Zion Church’s physical sanctuary in Beijing, fearing they could become collateral targets in the growing crackdown on Christians.

Pastor Jin chose to stay behind with his community.

“My father actually had many opportunities to apply for a green card,” Drexel said. “He felt the calling for China.”

Drexel herself has not seen her father in person since 2020.

CHINA FORMALLY ARRESTS 18 LEADERS OF UNDERGROUND ZION CHURCH AMID RELIGIOUS CRACKDOWN

Ezra Jin with his daughter, Grace Drexel, before Chinese authorities detained the pastor during a crackdown on independent Christian churches. (Family photo) (Fox News)

Now pregnant with her third child, she says all she wants is for her father to finally reunite with his family.

“We would really, really love for our children to also experience and learn from their Grandpa,” she said.

Drexel described her father not as a political dissident, but as a pastor whose only mission was to remain faithful to Christianity outside Communist Party control.

“My father is a pastor in China and like Christians everywhere, he believed that the church should only have one God and serve one God,” she told Fox News Digital.

She described Zion Church as independent from government oversight and deeply rooted in Scripture and community service.

REPORT DETAILS RISING PRESSURE ON UNDERGROUND CATHOLICS AS CHINA DENIES CRACKDOWN

 U.S. President Donald Trump reviews an honor guard with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People on May 14, 2026 in Beijing, China. President Trump is meeting with President Xi Jinping in Beijing to address the Iran conflict, trade imbalances, and the Taiwan situation while establishing new bilateral boards for economic and AI oversight. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

“We helped with the society and the community around us, love our neighbors, and to love God,” she said.

But beyond the role of pastor, Drexel says she simply knew her father as a gentle man devoted to those around him.

“Ultimately, I know my father as just a very gentle and kind man,” she said. “He is not very confrontational generally. He just loved everyone around him.”

“He never even criticized anyone, including his children, much as we were growing up,” she added.

Drexel tearfully said that relatives learned that her father had been handcuffed, his head shaved, and that he was struggling to receive medication while in detention.

“And this kind and gentle man is now in prison,” she said. “All because he was just leading a church.”

The crackdown against Zion Church began years before Pastor Jin’s arrest.

According to Drexel, the pressure intensified around 2016 and 2017 after Xi Jinping rewrote China’s religious regulations and formally advanced the policy known as the “Sinicization” of religion, an effort critics say forces religious groups to align with Communist Party ideology.

Around that time, Zion Church became one of many churches targeted by the authorities.

Initially, Drexel says government officials demanded the church install facial-recognition cameras inside the sanctuary to monitor worshipers.

TRUMP CHAMPIONS JESUS’ ‘MIRACULOUS RESURRECTION’ IN PALM SUNDAY MESSAGE VOWING TO ‘DEFEND THE CHRISTIAN FAITH’

Ezra Jin leads a service at Zion Church in China before authorities shut down the independent congregation amid a broader crackdown on Christian churches. (Family photo)

“We told them all our services are public. You can come and view anytime,” she said. “But we didn’t feel that we wanted to put an extra amount of surveillance or control on our congregation.”

After the church refused, Drexel says authorities installed surveillance cameras in the building’s lobby instead and began systematically targeting church members.

“Each and every member who came on Sunday [was] being harassed,” she said. Some worshipers lost jobs, others were forced out of apartments, while some families were threatened through their children’s education and even their parents’ retirement benefits.

“It was all possible under the Chinese Communist Party if they wanted you to stop doing something,” she said.

Authorities eventually confiscated the church’s property and shut down its physical worship space. Pastor Jin then moved services online and into smaller home gatherings, which led authorities to later accuse church leaders of the “illegal use of information networks” because of those online and decentralized worship activities.

But she says her father’s case is only one piece of a much larger crackdown unfolding across China.

CRUZ LEADS SENATE PUSH TO HOLD CHINA ACCOUNTABLE FOR BEIJING CHURCH CRACKDOWN

The family of Ezra Jin, whose daughter Grace Drexel says they have been separated from him for years amid China’s crackdown on independent Christian churches. (Family photo)

“There are so many pastors and church leaders and churches being persecuted in China actively today,” she added. “We know that there are hundreds of pastors that are currently in prison or are in detention.”

“This is a very critical period in China,” Drexel said. “And it’s very disheartening and very scary for many Christians in China.”

The broader persecution campaign against Christians, Uyghur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, and Falun Gong practitioners is also documented in “China’s War on Faith,” the recently released book by former Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback.

Brownback profiles believers imprisoned, tortured, and surveilled for practicing religion outside state-approved institutions and argues that the Chinese Communist Party increasingly sees independent faith itself as a threat to Party authority.

For Drexel, Trump’s decision to publicly mention her father’s name represents more than diplomacy.

“We hope that as the two leaders are meeting together that they will both have a softening of the hearts and will release my father and allow him to come to the U.S.,” she said.

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In this photo taken Aug. 4, 2018, Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri leads a class on the basics of Christian beliefs at the Zion Church in Beijing, China. (Ng Han Guan/AP Photo)

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Chinese Embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said the Chinese government protects “freedom of religious belief in accordance with the law” and argued that people of all ethnic groups in China enjoy religious freedom. Liu pointed to official figures showing nearly 200 million religious believers in China, along with more than 380,000 clerical personnel, approximately 5,500 religious groups and more than 140,000 registered places of worship.

Liu said Beijing regulates religious affairs involving “national interests and the public interest” while opposing what it describes as illegal or criminal activities carried out under the guise of religion. He also accused foreign countries and media outlets of interfering in China’s internal affairs under the pretext of religious freedom and urged journalists to “respect the facts” and stop what he described as “attacking and smearing” China’s religious policies and religious freedom record.

That mid-afternoon urge to reach for something salty or sweet isn’t just a lack of willpower — it’s something many Americans experience every day.

Surveys have found that people report an average of two cravings daily, with urges peaking at about 3:45 p.m.

There are a few reasons why, health experts told Fox News Digital.

6 HEALTHY FOODS THAT COULD SECRETLY SPIKE YOUR BLOOD SUGAR, AND WHAT TO EAT INSTEAD

“Most of us can relate to the afternoon crash or slump, and it’s tied to a couple of key factors,” North Carolina-based science communication consultant Megan Meyer, Ph.D., told Fox News Digital.

A light lunch, or skipping one altogether, can lead to a spike and drop in blood sugar, Meyer said, which “signals to the brain to seek out food — usually salty or sweet snacks — to stabilize blood sugar.”

A light lunch, or skipping it completely, can cause a spike in blood sugar, which triggers “the brain to seek out food,” a science communication consultant told Fox News Digital. (iStock)

Add in a natural dip in circadian rhythm and widespread sleep deprivation — both linked to increased cravings for high-calorie foods — and the late-afternoon snack attack starts to make sense, she said.

But cravings aren’t just about biology.

THE WORST FOODS TO BUY IN THE SUPERMARKET AND THE BETTER CHOICES INSTEAD

“Food is so inherently personal and tied to experiences and emotion,” Meyer said.

Stress, routines and even what’s within arm’s reach can shape what — and how often — we crave.

Cravings can be shaped by a person’s environment, so someone surrounded by junk food is likely to crave those foods, an expert said. (iStock)

“I’ve also noticed that my environment really shapes my eating patterns,” she said. “If I am surrounded by less healthy food options, I often crave those foods. When I remove them, those cravings tend to go away.”

Rather than viewing cravings as something to fight, they can be useful signals, South Carolina-based registered dietitian nutritionist Lauren Manaker told Fox News Digital.

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“Cravings are a natural part of how our bodies communicate with us, often signaling a need for energy, comfort or specific nutrients,” Manaker said.

“Rather than resisting them entirely, it’s helpful to approach cravings with balance and acknowledge them without judgment.”

“There’s a lot of unhealthy expectations around food.”

Instead, planning “satisfying, nutrient-dense meals and snacks throughout the day can help reduce the intensity of cravings, especially during that mid-afternoon slump,” Manaker said.

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Still, modern food culture can complicate things.

Cravings are a natural part of how the body communicates with the brain, a health expert told Fox News Digital. (iStock)

“There’s a lot of unhealthy expectations around food,” Meyer noted, pointing to the pressure of social media and so-called “influencer-worthy” meals.

A healthier approach is less about perfection and more about awareness.

TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZ

“Remember, honoring your hunger in a mindful way is an important part of maintaining a healthy relationship with food,” Manaker said.