Republican Senators Request All Records Behind Intelligence Chief’s COVID Origins Report

A group of Republican Senators has asked Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines to hand over materials that were used in her latest assessment of the origins COVID-19.

The following letter was sent to you on March 6.pdf), the senators—led by Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Md.)—asked that Haines provide the “memoranda; emails; interim and final assessments provided by each IC [intelligence community]; and any other information” Her office took into account when developing its assessment before March 20.

The letter was also signed by Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.).

“Congress should be able to review the independent evaluations without filters, ambiguity or interpretations of the intelligence,” These were the words of legislators. “There is clear bipartisan support in Congress to make these assessments available immediately in full as evident by the unanimous March 1, 2023 Senate passage of the COVID-19 Origin Act to declassify information related to the origin of COVID-19.”

Senate Vote

Last week, the Senate voted to declassify all information on the origins of COVID-19 following the wide circulation of a Wall Street Journal report that the Department of Energy had concluded the pandemic likely originated from a laboratory leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China—a conclusion that the FBI It also reached.

But the White House asserted On February 28, there will be “no consensus” In the United States government, the source of the pandemic was discussed. This echos the inconsistent messaging of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s (ODNI), previous assessment.pdf).

On Monday, senators got a classified update (from ODNI) after Wall Street Journal reported was published. It was based upon declassified assessments.pdfThe office previously published.

Despite the update, Senators questioned the qualifications of the ODNI staffers who published the assessment. The senators alleged that the office was not transparent with Congress, or the American people. “by standardizing agency conclusions and thereby ignoring the breadth of scientific and other expertise in each agency.”

“The COVID-19 origins investigation has been obfuscated by the Chinese Communist government’s lack of cooperation,” These were noted. “We and the American public expect better behavior from our own government.”

In addition to the requested materials from the intelligence community, the lawmakers also asked for a detailed briefing on ODNI’s process for developing its final report, including how records from agencies outside of the intelligence community—like the National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—were obtained and used in the analysis.

“It is time for the Administration to declassify the assessments, make the information available to the public, and start rebuilding the public’s trust through transparency,” The senators argued.