Judicial Watch Sues Defense Dept. for Covid-19 Origins Investigation Records

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense for Office of Inspector General records concerning an investigation into the handling of intelligence about the origins of Covid-19 (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of Defense (Case 1:26-cv-03925).

The suit was filed after the Defense Intelligence Agency failed to respond to a January 13, 2025, FOIA request for records of any Office of Inspector General investigation, inspection or evaluation concerning the National Center for Medical Intelligence’s (NCMI) study into the origins of Covid-19. The request included reports, summaries, interview transcripts and related communications.

Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) records showed that the agency was examining a possible laboratory origin of Covid-19 as early as March 2020, just 16 days after the World Health Organization declared the pandemic. A March 27, 2020, Defense Intelligence Agency assessment examined the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s coronavirus research and outlined a hypothetical scenario in which a laboratory-engineered virus escaped inadequate containment in 2019.

An unclassified May 2020 working paper by National Center for Medical Intelligence experts Robert Greg Cutlip and Navy Cmdr. Jean-Paul Chretien, titled “Critical Analysis of Anderson et al.; the proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2,” directly challenged the natural-origin claims. The paper concluded there was insufficient evidence to rule out a laboratory origin.

Chretien later reaffirmed that position in June 2023 testimony before the House Oversight Committee.

In December 2024, Senator Kennedy (R-LA) wrote a letter to Defense Intelligence Agency Inspector General Jeremy Kirkland:

I am writing to inquire about the results of an investigation opened by the Defense Intelligence Agency’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) concerning the National Center for Medical Intelligence’s (NCMI) study into the origins of Covid-19. Specifically, I am interested in the findings of the OIG’s inquiry as to whether the NCMI’s findings were appropriately included in briefings to President Biden and senior policy makers.

“The Pentagon’s medical intelligence unit identified early evidence that Covid-19 could have been engineered in a lab, yet the investigation’s findings are being withheld,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The American people have a right to every record about any Inspector General review.”

Judicial Watch FOIA lawsuits and investigations have uncovered much of what the public knows about many Covid-19 controversies.

In October 2026, Judicial Watch sued the CIA for records concerning Dr. Anthony Fauci’s communications with the Intelligence Community about the origins of Covid-19, gain-of-function research, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and the selection of scientific experts consulted during the government’s Covid-19 origin’s investigations.

In August 2026, Judicial Watch sued the U.S. Department of Justice for the contents of Fauci’s government-issued cell phones. The phones were provided to former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director Fauci and later reportedly recovered by the FBI

In May 2026, Judicial Watch filed a post-hearing brief in a FOIA lawsuit on behalf of Open the Books, urging a federal court to compel the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to release unredacted records showing royalty-related payments to government scientists, including Fauci.

In April 2026, Judicial Watch sued the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) for records and communications of its employees with other government officials regarding coronaviruses, the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), and related Covid-19 research.

In March 2026, Judicial Watch sued the U.S. Department of Defense (War Department) for records on funding proposals submitted to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Biological Technologies Office prior to the Covid-19 outbreak. The Biological Technologies Office was launched in 2014.

In June 2025, Judicial Watch sued the Defense Department for all records regarding U.S. military personnel possibly contracting Covid-19 in October 2019 during the World Military Games in Wuhan, China. The lawsuit cited a December 2022 report issued by the Pentagon titled “Report to the Committees on Armed Services of the Senate and House of Representatives: 2019 World Military Games” which states that seven “service members who attended the games exhibited Covid-19-like signs and/or symptoms” during the time surrounding their attendance at the games.

In May 2025, Judicial Watch received records from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that revealed its plans to mandate Covid-19 vaccinations for 17 million health care employees and that only one of 4,682 claims for injuries and deaths due to Covid-19 “countermeasures” at the time was compensated.

In June 2021, Judicial Watch filed two new FOIA lawsuits targeting the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) for State Department records on the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the origins of SARS-CoV-2 dating back to 2017.

In March 2022, Judicial Watch obtained records from Anthony Fauci’s agency, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), showing China failed to provide key Covid-19 information and withheld essential Covid-19 data in early 2020, hindering U.S. risk assessment, along with details of NIAID funding to the Wuhan lab.

Records uncovered in 2024 from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) through a FOIA request showed an April 2020 email exchange with several officials in the bureau’s Newark Field Office referring to a National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) grant to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China as including “gain-of-function research” which “would leave no signature of purposeful human manipulation.”

Records from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) showed that a Pfizer study surveyed 23 people in 2021 to gauge reactions to its Covid vaccine booster before asking the FDA to approve it. 

Records from the Health and Human Services included the initial grant application and annual reports to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from EcoHealth Alliance, describing the aim of its work with the Wuhan Institute of Virology to create mutant viruses “to better predict the capacity of our CoVs [coronaviruses] to infect people.”

Health and Human Services records included emails of then-Director of the National Institutes of Health Francis Collins showing a British physicians’ group recommended the use of Ivermectin to prevent and treat Covid-19. 

Records from Health and Human Services regarding data Moderna submitted to the Food and Drug Administration on its mRNA Covid-19 vaccine indicated a “statistically significant” number of rats were born with skeletal deformations after their mothers were injected with the vaccine. The documents also revealed Moderna elected not to conduct a number of standard pharmacological studies on the laboratory test animals.

Food and Drug Administration records detailed pressure for Covid-19 vaccine booster approval and use.

National Institutes of Health records revealed an FBI “inquiry” into the NIH’s controversial bat coronavirus grant tied to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The records also show National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) officials were concerned about “gain-of-function” research in China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology in 2016. The Fauci agency was also concerned about EcoHealth Alliance’s lack of compliance with reporting rules and use of gain-of-function research in the NIH-funded research involving bat coronaviruses in Wuhan, China. 

Health and Human Services records revealed that from 2014 to 2019, $826,277 was given to the Wuhan Institute of Virology for bat coronavirus research by the NIAID.

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases records showed that it gave nine China-related grants to EcoHealth Alliance to research coronavirus emergence in bats and was the National Institutes of Health’s top issuer of grants to the Wuhan lab itself. The records also included an email from the vice director of the Wuhan Lab asking an NIH official for help finding disinfectants for decontamination of airtight suits and indoor surfaces.

Health and Human Services records included an “urgent for Dr. Fauci” email chain, citing ties between the Wuhan lab and the taxpayer-funded EcoHealth Alliance. The government emails also reported that the foundation of U.S. billionaire Bill Gates worked closely with the Chinese government to pave the way for Chinese-produced medications to be sold outside China and help “raise China’s voice of governance by placing representatives from China on important international councils as high level commitment from China.”

Health and Human Services records included a grant application for research involving the coronavirus that appeared to describe “gain-of-function” research involving RNA extractions from bats, experiments on viruses, attempts to develop a chimeric virus and efforts to genetically manipulate the full-length bat SARS-CoV WIV1 strain molecular clone.

Health and Human Services records showed the State Department and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases knew immediately in January 2020 that China was withholding Covid-19 data, which was hindering risk assessment and response by public health officials.

University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) records showed the former director of the Galveston National Laboratory at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), Dr. James W. Le Duc warned Chinese researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology of potential investigations into the Covid issue by Congress.

Health and Human Services records regarding biodistribution studies and related data for the Covid-19 vaccines showed a key component of the vaccines developed by Pfizer/BioNTech, lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), were found outside the injection site, mainly the liver, adrenal glands, spleen and ovaries of test animals, eight to 48 hours after injection.

Records from the Federal Select Agent Program (FSAP) revealed safety lapses and violations at U.S. biosafety laboratories that conduct research on dangerous agents and toxins.

Health and Human Services records included emails between National Institutes of Health (NIH) then-Director Francis Collins and Fauci, the director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, about hydroxychloroquine and Covid-19.

Health and Human Services records showed that National Institutes of Health officials tailored confidentiality forms to China’s terms and that the World Health Organization (WHO) conducted an unreleased, “strictly confidential” Covid-19 epidemiological analysis in January 2020.

Fauci emails included his approval of a press release supportive of China’s response to the 2019 novel coronavirus.

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Source: https://www.judicialwatch.org/sues-defense-dept-covid-19-origins-investigation-records/