CIA Director John Ratcliffe warned his agents of "changes" to come under his leadership in a memo obtained by Fox News Digital.
China says it's "extremely unlikely" that COVID-19 came from a lab, after the CIA said it believed, though with low confidence, that it did, rather than from natural transmission.
The Central Intelligence Agency previously said that two explanations were plausible, a lab leak or a natural source for the virus. Yet under new agency director John Ratcliffe, the CIA has changed its view, which is now in line with that of the Department of Energy and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The virus that started the COVID-19 pandemic most likely originated from a lab in China, the CIA said in a new assessment, though it has no conclusive evidence.
The CIA on Saturday offered a new assessment on the origin of the Covid outbreak, saying the coronavirus is "more likely" to have leaked from a Chinese lab than to have come from animals. But the intelligence agency cautioned it had "low confidence" in this determination.
The CIA now assesses the virus that causes Covid-19 more likely originated from an accidental lab leak in China, rather than occurring naturally, according to a statement from the agency Saturday, just days after Director John Ratcliffe took the reins.
The intelligence agency says it has a “low confidence” in its new finding, but this is further than it has ever gone in pinpointing the origin of a virus that killed millions worldwide.
Adam Ciralsky's real experiences as a lawyer for the CIA caught the eye of Noah Centineo, who took the idea to Netflix
New CIA Director John Ratcliffe ordered the covid origins analysis declassified, which a spokesperson described as a “low-confidence” assessment.
Newly-confirmed CIA Director John Ratcliffe told Fox News the decision to release a Biden-era analysis favoring the COVID-19 lab leak theory is a step toward transparency.
China on Monday dismissed the possibility that the virus that caused COVID-19 leaked from a lab, after the CIA said it now favors the so-called lab leak theory over natural transmission. “It