Written by Hudson Crozier

What’s happening: House Republicans claim to have evidence that former health official Dr. Anthony Fauci “played a role in the [CIA’s] review of the origins of COVID-19,” secretly meeting with officials to convince them that the virus came about naturally and not from a lab. A report by Public confirmed this, adding that Fauci also targeted the White House and State Department.

Why it matters: Fauci approved funding for dangerous research in Wuhan, China, that likely led to the creation and outbreak of the virus. These reports provide a fuller picture of how far he went to save himself from scrutiny.

Manufacturing a narrative: Fauci and another National Institutes of Health (NIH) official “prompted” scientists to write a paper in 2020 undermining the lab leak theory and approved it before publication, emails and messages have shown. Fauci then presented the now-discredited paper to the CIA, White House, and State Department to make his arguments.

• It worked: “Fauci’s expert opinions … substantially altered the conclusions” of the CIA’s investigation, a CIA source said. “He was covering his a** and he was trying to do it with the intel community.” Then, the CIA allegedly bribed its own analysts to reject the lab leak theory too.

Now: State Department agents confirmed the lab leak theory earlier this year, while other agencies haven’t given a firm answer. The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic is demanding more information from the CIA on interactions with Fauci.