During the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic hearing on Capitol Hill Tuesday, former Director of National Intelligence (DNI) John Ratcliffe testified that “a lab leak is the only explanation credibly supported by our intelligence, by science, and by common sense.”

Ratcliffe’s sworn testimony comes the morning after reports that a new Senate report concluded that the leak happened earlier than first thought, and that US-funded virus weaponization was taking place in Wuhan. As Bonchie covered Tuesday morning:

“This report concludes most likely this was two leaks,” Marshall said during a briefing with reporters ahead of the release of the report. “The possibility of a lab leak in the September-October [2019] time frame, even as early as July or August, was followed by vaccine development in November 2019. And then another lab leak seems to be the most sensible explanation in this retrospective review.”

And:

The report determined that the U.S. government was funding gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

“I think we’re in no better shape today than we were a year ago, three years ago, as far as I’m concerned,” Marshall said in response to a question from Just the News.

“There’s nothing proving to me that they’re doing this type of research in BSL-4 labs,” he continued. “Their own documents continue to show that they’re understaffed, that they don’t have the right facilities to do it in, a huge concern. That’s why we’ve been calling for a halt in all viral gain-of-function research until we get the guardrails around it.”

BREAKING‼️

“A lab leak is the only explanation credibly supported by our intelligence, by science and by common sense.”

Former Director of National Intelligence @JohnRatcliffe testifies that the Wuhan lab is responsible for spawning a global pandemic. pic.twitter.com/RHFV4FwNbV

— Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic (@COVIDSelect) April 18, 2023

Ratcliffe said:

My informed assessment, as a person with as much access as anyone to our government’s intelligence during the initial year of the pandemic, has been and continues to be that a lab leak is the only explanation credibly supported by our intelligence, by science, and by common sense.

From a view inside the IC, if our intelligence and evidence supporting a lab leak theory was placed side-by-side with our intelligence and evidence pointing to a natural origins or spillover theory, the lab leak side of the ledger would be long, convincing, even overwhelming, while the spillover side would be nearly empty and tenuous.

Were this a trial, a preponderance of circumstantial evidence provided by our intelligence would compel a jury finding of guilt to an accusation that coronavirus research in the Wuhan labs was responsible for the pandemic.”

Testimony in Tuesday’s hearing also revealed that some State Department officials worked to conceal information pointing to a lab leak origin, saying that it could open a “Pandora’s box.”