James Erdman III spent his career as a CIA operations officer. On May 13, 2026 he sat down in front of the Senate Homeland Security Committee under subpoena and described, under oath, how the origin of COVID-19 was decided — not by evidence, but by management. In July he resigned.
In This Mike Church Show One on One:
00:00 - Interview begins
01:15 - The Congressional subpoenas
05:22 - The CIA attempt to scuttle the testimony
08:31 - Where the hearing video is
16:00 - "Welp, we've got our answer on Covid's origins!"
26:00 - Rand Paul is the Real Deal and why you should listen to him
33:30 - Why the CIA is ACTUALLY like the X-Files
38:40 - Erdman is impressed by Tulsi Gabbard's evisceration of Kamala Harris in a debate
41:50 - The amazing stoicism of Tulsi Gabbard
47:30 - The U.S.'s biological weapons program revealed
52:22 - The importance of MHA and RFK Jr in this moment in history
58:00 - The enduring commitment of Americans to get to the bottom of Conspiracies
01:00:02 - UAP's and what to think about them

Erdman was one of the first members of the Director's Initiatives Group, the transparency task force DNI Tulsi Gabbard stood up in April 2025. His portfolio was COVID origins. The DIG was dissolved in January 2026.

WHAT HE PUT ON THE RECORD:

• Fauci pressured the intelligence community to consult a curated list of outside experts — the "Proximal Origin" authors and others in his orbit, many carrying NIAID funding. This contradicts his own June 2024 testimony that he left the origin question to the experts.

• At a June 4, 2021 interagency meeting Fauci gave specific guidance on the IC's outreach. The officer running the 90-day study made sure his recommendations were followed.

• The National Intelligence Council settled its position on COVID origins by taking a vote. Five of six. The DIG found no other documentation supporting the conclusion.

• By March 2023, six of seven technical experts on the CIA's ten-person relook team assessed lab incident. Management — none of them subject matter experts — changed the analytic line to say the origin may never be "precisely" known. Those edits were made at 1:53 in the morning, and the track changes do not show who made them.

• The analysts who called lab leak received a $1,500 performance award. A non-specialist favoring natural origin received four times that.

• The analysts who called lab leak no longer serve as analysts in that center. The managers were promoted.

• Erdman is explicit that the analysts were NOT bribed — he corrects the story that circulated in 2025.

• After the DIG was shut down, the CIA took back 40 boxes of JFK assassination files queued for declassification. They also took back the MKULTRA files.

• The CIA monitored the computers and communications of DIG personnel inside ODNI spaces, and opened investigations into them. A contractor who came to the DIG as a whistleblower was fired the next day.

SOURCES:
Written testimony + Rand Paul / Ron Johnson letter to Director Ratcliffe:
https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/letter-and-testimomy.pdf

Full hearing (C-SPAN):
https://www.c-span.org/program/senate-committee/cia-whistleblower-testifies-on-alleged-federal-covid-19-coverup/679083