By George Caldwell, The Daily Signal | May 14, 2026
Tensions have flared between Capitol Hill Republicans and the intelligence community after the Central Intelligence Agency harshly criticized a committee for subpoenaing an agent and denied reports of a cover-up of declassified material.
On Wednesday, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, chaired by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., heard the testimony of subpoenaed CIA whistleblower James Erdman III, who alleged the federal government suppressed inquiries into the origin of COVID-19.
CIA spokeswoman Liz Lyons spoke out against the hearing on X beforehand, accusing the committee of acting “in bad faith by subpoenaing an Agency officer for testimony today without notifying CIA, despite having already obtained closed-door testimony from the individual previously.”
She added, “The witness testifying today is not appearing as a whistleblower in pursuit of the truth, but instead in response to the subpoena issued by Chairman Paul. This proceeding amounts to nothing more than dishonest political theater masquerading as a congressional hearing. As the CIA has already assessed, COVID-19 most likely originated from a lab leak, and efforts to undermine that conclusion are disingenuous.”
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who is generally an ally of the administration, slammed the CIA for Lyons’ statement in the hearing.
“I am calling on CIA director [John] Ratcliffe and this person to apologize to chairman Paul and this committee,” Johnson said. “This is not political theater. I have years and years and years of built-up frustration of agencies like the CIA, Department of Justice, the FBI, [and] HHS, snubbing our oversight, giving us the big middle finger,” he added.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, also reacted negatively, calling on X for Ratcliffe to “denounce and rescind” the statement against the hearing. He later called for the CIA to “watch how it speaks to Congress” and called for Ratcliffe to provide testimony.
In a separate congressional clash with the agency on Wednesday, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla. who leads the House Oversight Committee’s Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, claimed on NewsNation that she had been told the CIA had seized documents related to the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the CIA’s MKUltra experiments from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
Luna said the CIA was holding on to the documents and this would be in contravention of President Donald Trump’s executive order declassifying them.
Fox News’ Jesse Watters later amplified Luna’s statement, saying the CIA had “raided” Gabbard’s office.
But ODNI spokeswoman Olivia Coleman denied Watters’ characterization.
“This is false — the CIA did not raid the DNI’s office,” wrote Coleman.
This did not allay the criticisms of Capitol Hill Republicans.
“It’s immaterial whether those documents were in her personal office,” replied Lee. “If those documents were taken away from her custody by CIA as she was preparing to declassify them, that’s a problem.”
George Caldwell is a correspondent for the Daily Signal.
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