A former CIA officer claims the intelligence community deliberately buried the COVID lab-leak theory and is still sitting on the MK Ultra files — bad news for trust in the agencies and for figures like Anthony Fauci.

• James Erdman, a retired CIA officer, testified to the Senate that intelligence leaders downplayed the lab-leak origin of COVID to protect big pharma and vaccine mandates.
• He says newly declassified documents from outgoing intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard confirm the cover-up looks intentional, with Fauci steering a hand-picked group of scientists to shape the agencies' conclusions.
• He says he personally sat in an office with the MK Ultra files — five or six boxes stacked waist-high — so any claim they were destroyed is a lie, and JFK files also remain unreleased.
• He co-founded a group that sued over the federal vaccine mandate, and says the CIA flagged mandate refusers for counter-espionage investigation, treating them like possible spies.
• He argues Congress and the media have stopped providing real oversight, and blasts Trump for still praising Operation Warp Speed.

Outlook: Erdman expects accountability eventually but not soon, with lawsuits and document fights over COVID, MK Ultra, and JFK dragging on.