The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project has filed a lawsuit against the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), alleging obstruction in revealing critical information about the COVID-19 pandemic’s origins. The litigation is based on a whistleblower’s claims that CIA analysts were offered monetary incentives to alter their findings on the virus’s origin.
The case was filed last Friday with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and alleges federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) violations. The Oversight Project seeks an order compelling the CIA to disclose records generated by its “COVID Discovery Team.”
The lawsuit alleges that the CIA team accepted offers of financial payments to change its reporting on whether the deadly virus emerged from a virology lab in Wuhan, China. The complaint alleges that “members of the CIA’s COVID Discovery Team received monetary incentives to change their position on the origins of the virus.”
EXCLUSIVE: Conservative Organization Sues CIA For Refusing To Hand Over Covid Recordshttps://t.co/PLE0usC2k6
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) December 26, 2023
The whistleblower who gave rise to the case was a senior CIA officer. He reportedly informed a group of House Republicans that the CIA offered payments to analysts to support a narrative against the lab leak theory. The officer also said that six of the seven members of the COVID Discovery Team believed the evidence supported the conclusion that the virus originated in Wuhan. However, they were later swayed to alter their official findings.
The Oversight Project’s legal team is led by chief counsel Kyle Brosnan. “The obstruction cannot stand, and we’re fighting in federal court to get to the bottom of this,” Brosnan said in a statement accompanying the filing of the lawsuit.
A group of influential GOP lawmakers, led by Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Rick Scott (R-FL) and Ron Johnson (R-WI), have been central figures in the search for the truth about the origins of COVID. They have been urgently seeking answers from CIA Director William Burns about the stunning allegations of the agency whistleblower.
The Oversight Project’s lawsuit also questions the role of Dr. Anthony Fauci, former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) director. The case alleges that whistleblower claims also indicate that Fauci was directly involved in discrediting the lab leak theory and influencing the CIA investigation.
In addition to the disclosure of relevant public records, the lawsuit also seeks an award of the Oversight Project’s legal fees and expenses incurred in prosecuting the case.
