Judicial Watch is asking a federal court to compel the CIA to release records involving Anthony Fauci, COVID-19 origins, Wuhan research and the experts who helped shape intelligence assessments of the pandemic’s source.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Judicial Watch filed a federal lawsuit against the CIA on Thursday seeking records that could shed light on Anthony Fauci’s communications with the U.S. intelligence community as officials investigated the origins of COVID-19 and considered evidence involving the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The Freedom of Information Act action, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, asks the court to require the agency to produce documents sought in a May records request. The lawsuit was filed as Judicial Watch Inc. v. Central Intelligence Agency, case No. 1:26-cv-03336, after the organization said the CIA failed to respond to that request. Judicial Watch announced the filing Thursday.
The records request extends well beyond direct correspondence between Fauci and CIA personnel. Judicial Watch is seeking communications involving Fauci, his executive assistants, senior advisers or counsel concerning the origins of COVID-19, gain-of-function research, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, EcoHealth Alliance, coronavirus research funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the selection of specialists consulted by intelligence officials. Fauci led NIAID from 1984 until his retirement in 2022.
Judicial Watch also wants records concerning the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s Biological Sciences Experts Group, including information about its membership, activities, conflict-of-interest disclosures, recusals and correspondence. The request specifically seeks records involving University of North Carolina virologist Ralph Baric, according to the organization.
Another portion covers communications between CIA employees and members of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s Director’s Initiatives Group from March 1, 2025, through April 30, 2026. Those records concern the origins of COVID-19, the CIA’s production of documents to the group, any limitations or refusals involving those records and CIA Senior Operations Officer James E. Erdman III.
The FOIA effort followed Erdman’s May 13 appearance before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, where he testified as an intelligence-community whistleblower about the government’s examination of the pandemic’s origins. The committee identifies Erdman as a CIA senior operations officer.
Erdman alleged during the hearing that Fauci influenced how intelligence officials approached the origins question by steering them toward a particular group of scientific and public-health experts. His allegations included claims that some of those experts had professional or financial connections to NIAID funding, creating potential conflicts that Erdman said should have received greater scrutiny.
“Dr. Anthony Fauci influenced the IC’s analytic process and Covid origin’s findings by leveraging his position to ensure the IC consulted with a conflicted list of curated Subject Matter Experts (SME), public health officials, and scientists,” Erdman testified, according to records of the hearing cited by Judicial Watch. He said the group included authors of “The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2” as well as other scientists who had received NIAID funding.
Erdman further alleged that Fauci became involved at two significant stages of the intelligence community’s work: during the opening months of the pandemic in February 2020 and again in June 2021, when intelligence agencies were conducting a 90-day review ordered to examine available evidence concerning the virus’s origins.
According to Erdman, Fauci participated in a June 4, 2021, interagency meeting and offered recommendations about intelligence-community outreach to outside specialists. “He provided specific guidance regarding the IC’s outreach efforts,” Erdman testified. “The NIC officer in charge of the 90-day study proceeded to ensure Dr. Fauci’s recommendations were pursued.”
Erdman also testified that CIA analysts altered the agency’s assessment sometime between Aug. 12 and Aug. 17, 2021, moving from what he characterized as a lab-incident assessment to a position without consensus. He said records available to the Director’s Initiatives Group did not explain why that change occurred. Those assertions are allegations made in congressional testimony and do not by themselves establish that Fauci improperly altered an intelligence assessment.
The testimony drew renewed scrutiny of Fauci’s previous statements about his contacts with intelligence agencies. During congressional testimony in 2024, Fauci was asked whether he had briefed the FBI, CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency or another U.S. intelligence agency concerning viral research. He responded, “not to my knowledge” when asked about COVID-related discussions, according to material cited in the current Judicial Watch case.
Fauci has disputed broader claims that he improperly steered the scientific debate over COVID-19’s origins. He has maintained that he kept an open mind about the possibility of a laboratory accident even while saying available scientific evidence led him to favor a natural-origin explanation. Scientists and U.S. agencies have remained divided over the issue, with different intelligence agencies reaching different assessments and confidence levels regarding whether SARS-CoV-2 emerged through natural exposure or a laboratory-related incident.
The CIA itself has changed its public posture over time. After previously declining to favor either a natural origin or laboratory-related origin, the agency said in 2025 that it assessed a research-related origin as more likely, while assigning low confidence to that judgment because available evidence remained incomplete and both scenarios were considered plausible.
The dispute over which experts advised intelligence agencies has since become another focus of congressional scrutiny. Erdman alleged that members of the Biological Sciences Experts Group helped shape intelligence analysis while some had professional relationships or funding connections that warranted closer examination.
Judicial Watch’s lawsuit seeks the underlying government records rather than a judicial determination about the origin of COVID-19 or the accuracy of Erdman’s allegations. If successful under FOIA, the litigation could require the CIA to search for responsive documents and either release them or identify the legal exemptions it relies upon to withhold particular records.
“The whistleblower testimony raises serious questions about Fauci’s contacts with the Intelligence Community and the process used to determine which experts would advise intelligence officials about Covid-19’s origins,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said. “The American people deserve to see the underlying CIA records. If Fauci influenced the selection of experts or the Intelligence Community’s analysis, the public has a right to know exactly what happened and who was involved.”
The case is the latest records fight involving the government’s handling of COVID-19 origins information. Judicial Watch has previously pursued records from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and other federal agencies concerning coronavirus research, Wuhan, government-funded scientific work and internal deliberations over how agencies assessed competing origin theories.
The new lawsuit does not establish that Fauci committed wrongdoing or that Erdman’s allegations are correct. Its immediate question is narrower: whether the CIA must disclose records showing what Fauci and intelligence officials discussed, which scientists were chosen to advise the government and how those consultations intersected with the intelligence community’s evolving assessment of where COVID-19 originated.
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