Exclusive | CIA not fully cooperating on probe into COVID origins cover-up, alleged monitoring of analysts: intel watchdog

WASHINGTON — The Central Intelligence Agency is not fully cooperating with an investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and the likelihood that it was caused by a laboratory accident, according to a federal watchdog.In a June letter obtained by The Post, Intelligence Community Inspector General Christopher Fox accused CIA Director John Ratcliffe of failing to provide records critical to determining whether the US government was engaged in what an agency officer recently testified was a “cover up” of the pandemic’s origins.The internal watchdog is reviewing whether a team of analysts dispatched by then-Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to uncover alleged President Biden-era intelligence failures on COVID was stymied. Fox had earlier demanded answers from Ratcliffe about the allegations of analysts having their computer and phone usage tracked — as well as their communications with whistleblowers — and said he had up to this point received insufficient responses.The IC IG found it “concerning” that the CIA director responded that there wasn’t evidence that his agency “illegally monitored” the analysts who were working with Gabbard as part of a special unit known as the Director’s Initiatives Group.Fox also claimed the CIA was not complying with the federal law that compels the agency to “coordinate” with the IC Office of Inspector General for its oversight of such matters “as appropriate.”The June 16 letter was sent to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and laid out Fox’s issues with the CIA after the Iowa Republican drew attention to the “serious” allegations put forward by the agency officer who testified to a Senate committee the month before.“Americans deserve a full accounting of COVID-19’s origins and the Intelligence Community’s (IC) response, especially whether whistleblowers were unlawfully monitored amid fallout from the virus,” Grassley told The Post.“I appreciate t...