On Friday, The Heritage Foundation filed a lawsuit against the CIA for refusing to comply with a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from the conservative think tank. The request was for information relating to members of the team the CIA put together to investigate the origins of COVID, six of whom have been accused by a whistleblower of accepting bribes to change their position.
And this whistleblower isn’t some random, anonymous person on Twitter. Back in September, they testified before the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.
According to the House Oversight Committee:
The whistleblower, who presents as a highly credible senior-level CIA officer, alleges that of the seven members assigned to the CIA team tasked with analyzing COVID-19 origins, six officers concluded that the virus likely originated from a lab in Wuhan, China. The CIA, then however, allegedly offered financial incentives to six of the experts involved in the investigation to change their conclusion in favor of a zoonotic origin.
After the testimony, four Republican Senators, led by Rand Paul (R-KY), sent a letter to CIA director, William J. Burns, requesting information regarding the whistleblower’s allegations. The Heritage Foundation also filed a FOIA request for the information, and the CIA’s refusal to comply with it is why the think tank’s Oversight Project is currently suing them.
According to The Daily Caller:
Heritage is suing the CIA in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and its lawsuit lays out five claims of relief against the CIA.
Heritage’s original FOIA request sought records from the creation of the discovery team and all records shared among team members associated with COVID-19’s origins. In addition, the conservative group demanded records of any financial bonuses and communications between discovery team members and officials from numerous agencies across the federal government.
The lawsuit asks the court to compel the CIA to produce all non-exempt records under Heritage’s prior FOIA request and to cover Heritage’s costs incurred.
This lawsuit comes at a time when more and more people, both inside and outside the government, are finally admitting that COVID most likely came from a lab in Wuhan. A theory that for years has been dismissed as conspiracy.
Independent Journalism Is Dying
Ever since President Trump’s miraculous victory, we’ve heard an incessant drumbeat about how legacy media is dying. This is true. The people have awakened to the reality that they’re being lied to by the self-proclaimed “Arbiters of Truth” for the sake of political expediency, corporate self-protection, and globalist ambitions.
But even as independent journalism rises to fill the void left by legacy media, there is still a huge challenge. Those at the top of independent media like Joe Rogan, Dan Bongino, and Tucker Carlson are thriving and rightly so. They have earned their audience and the financial rewards that come from it. They’ve taken risks and worked hard to get to where they are.
For “the rest of us,” legacy media and their proxies are making it exceptionally difficult to survive, let alone thrive. They still have a stranglehold over the “fact checkers” who have a dramatic impact on readership and viewership. YouTube, Facebook, and Google still stifle us. The freer speech platforms like Rumble and 𝕏 can only reward so many of their popular content creators. For independent journalists on the outside looking in, our only recourse is to rely on affiliates and sponsors.
But even as it seems nearly impossible to make a living, there are blessings that should not be disregarded. By highlighting strong sponsors who share our America First worldview, we have been able to make lifelong connections and even a bit of revenue to help us along. This is why we enjoy symbiotic relationships with companies like MyPillow, Jase Medical, and Promised Grounds. We help them with our recommendations and they reward us with money when our audience buys from them.
The same can be said about our preparedness sponsor, Prepper All-Naturals. Their long-term storage beef has a 25-year shelf life and is made with one ingredient: All-American Beef.
Even our faith-driven precious metals sponsor helps us tremendously while also helping Americans protect their life’s savings. We are blessed to work with them.
Independent media is the future. In many ways, that future is already here. While the phrase, “the more the merrier,” does not apply to this business because there are still some bad actors in the independent media field, there are many great ones that do not get nearly enough attention. We hope to change that one content creator at a time.
Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker
