A Senate committee hearing on the origins of COVID-19 took place Wednesday without any Democratic members present. CIA whistleblower James Erdman III testified that Dr. Anthony Fauci intentionally influenced the cover-up of key information. Republicans on the panel criticized federal agencies for a lack of transparency.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee held the session on May 13 to examine how federal agencies handled information about the pandemic's origins. Erdman stated in his opening remarks that Fauci leveraged his position to curate experts and control the intelligence community's findings. He specifically referenced authors of the paper The Proximal Origin of SARS-COV2 and noted a lack of oversight over related research policies.