Newly released emails show that the United States Intelligence Community, including the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, held regular meetings with Dr. Ralph Baric beginning in 2015.

Senator Rand Paul’s office spent years seeking the documents, which detail ongoing contact between federal intelligence agencies and one of the nation’s leading coronavirus researchers.

I’ve sent a letter to ODNI after uncovering new records showing U.S. intel was in contact with coronavirus researcher Ralph Baric as early as 2015. pic.twitter.com/GxuQ5ZDPt8

— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) October 30, 2025

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Baric, a researcher at the University of North Carolina, has faced accusations that he engineered the Covid-19 virus through work involving the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

He has not testified publicly about his role in coronavirus research or his collaboration with the lab in China.

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The emails indicate that the CIA sought to discuss “Coronavirus evolution and possible natural human adaptation with Baric,” and that Baric participated in quarterly meetings with Intelligence Community personnel.

The message release adds to a chain of records and allegations examined in The Covid Response at Five Years involving federal intelligence agencies and the origins of the pandemic.

A condensed timeline based on the documents and other sources outlines a series of events cited by investigators, whistleblowers, and congressional committees:

2015: Intelligence officials met quarterly with Baric to discuss topics that included “possible human adaptation” linked to coronavirus evolution.

New Unreported Truths, on the links between North Carolina coronavirus researcher Ralph Baric, the @CIA, and the Wuhan Institute of Virology pic.twitter.com/pIWbCRp9FW

— Alex Berenson (@AlexBerenson) November 12, 2025

The documents I released today reveal U.S. intelligence officials were in contact with Dr. Ralph Baric — a collaborator of WIV’s Dr. Zhengli Shi – years before the pandemic.

In September 2015, the CIA and ODNI reached out to Baric to discuss a “possible project” on “coronavirus… pic.twitter.com/uyFBjNtMtY

— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) October 30, 2025

2019–2020: Journalist Seymour Hersh reported that the CIA maintained an asset inside the Wuhan Institute of Virology involved in “both offensive and defensive work” with pathogens.

According to Hersh, the asset informed the agency in early 2020 that a laboratory accident had infected a researcher.

March 18, 2020: The Department of Homeland Security replaced the Department of Health and Human Services as the lead federal agency responding to the Covid-19 outbreak, a shift examined in Debbie Lerman’s The Deep State Goes Viral.

Spring 2020: A whistleblower alleged that the CIA offered financial incentives to scientists to change their position on the origins of Covid-19.

According to the House Oversight Committee, “six of the seven members of the Team believed the intelligence and science were sufficient to make a low confidence assessment that COVID-19 originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, China.”

The Committee stated that those six members “were given a significant monetary incentive to change their position.”

2020: Another whistleblower alleged that Dr. Anthony Fauci held secret meetings at CIA headquarters “without a record of entry” to influence the agency’s Covid-19 origins inquiry.

The whistleblower told Congress, “He knew what was going on…He was covering his ass and he was trying to do it with the Intel community.”

2021: Defense Department scientists assembled evidence supporting the theory that Covid originated through a lab leak, but President Biden’s Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, barred them from presenting their findings or joining discussions on the virus’s origins.

2021: The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security, launched a program known as “switchboarding,” directing social media companies on what content to restrict or allow.

2022: The Department of Homeland Security announced the creation of a “Disinformation Governance Board.”

The initiative was discontinued after public criticism of its proposed leader, Nina Jankowicz.

The records and allegations outlined above have been cited by critics who argue that intelligence agencies exercised broad authority over public health policy, pandemic messaging, and research surrounding the origins of Covid-19.

The timeline also references concerns that intelligence officials worked closely with academic institutions and private organizations on pandemic-related planning exercises, including Event 201 and Crimson Contagion, years before the outbreak.

The documents raise questions about the Intelligence Community’s role in coronavirus research, pandemic response, and early assessments of a possible lab leak.

They also reference calls for testimony from Baric and intelligence officials about gain-of-function research, work conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and actions taken in 2020 concerning the origin of the virus.

Supporters of further inquiry argue that congressional hearings, investigations, and sworn testimony are necessary to establish a full account of the involvement of federal agencies and research institutions in the events leading up to and following the Covid-19 outbreak.

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