DNI to Declassify Covid-Origin Intelligence by Feb. 17, Internal Memo Shows

The Declassification Order

WASHINGTON, Feb. 12, 2026 - The Office of the Director of National Intelligence is preparing to release a tranche of documents related to the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic by Feb. 17, according to three officials familiar with the matter. The declassification, ordered in a Jan. 28 memorandum from Director of National Intelligence Sarah Langdon, covers roughly 400 pages of intelligence community analysis, source reporting, and interagency correspondence from 2020 and 2021, the officials said.

The release, expected to be posted on the ODNI website and delivered to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence by close of business Monday, represents the most significant disclosure of pandemic-era intelligence since a 2023 Energy Department assessment concluded with low confidence that the virus likely resulted from a laboratory incident. Two officials said the materials include redacted versions of signals intelligence summaries, reports from the National Center for Medical Intelligence, and email traffic between the CIA and outside scientific consultants.

A senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the release had not been announced, said the documents were undergoing a final classification review at the Liberty Crossing complex in McLean, Virginia. The official said the review began on Feb. 3 and was expected to conclude by Feb. 14, leaving two days for the White House counsel's office and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to coordinate a public rollout.

What the Documents Contain

"The package includes material that was previously marked at the top-secret level and held by the CIA's Weapons Intelligence, Nonproliferation, and Arms Control Center," the senior official said. "Some of the reporting was shared with the State Department's Bureau of Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance in the spring of 2020."

A former Senate Intelligence Committee staffer who reviewed an early summary of the forthcoming release said the documents could renew scrutiny of the Wuhan Institute of Virology and of U.S. government funding decisions made during the pandemic. The staffer, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive materials, said the committee had pressed ODNI for the documents during closed hearings in December 2025 and January 2026.

The Jan. 28 memorandum, a copy of which was reviewed by The Alamo Post, directs the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Agency to identify records "pertaining to the origins, early spread, and international response to SARS-CoV-2" that can be declassified without compromising sources or methods. The memo sets a deadline of Feb. 17 for the initial release and calls for quarterly follow-on disclosures through the end of 2026.

Reaction on Capitol Hill

Senators on the Intelligence Committee were briefed on the timeline during a closed session on Feb. 10, two congressional aides briefed on the plan said. The aides said members were told the release would be accompanied by a written statement from Langdon and by an unclassified summary prepared by the National Intelligence Council.

One aide said Republican members of the committee had pushed for the documents to include material related to a Jan. 15, 2021 State Department fact sheet on the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which had cited classified evidence of laboratory research with possible military applications. A second aide said Democratic members had asked ODNI to provide assurances that the release would not endanger human sources.

The upcoming disclosure arrives as House committees continue separate investigations into pandemic-era grant funding. The House Oversight Committee has scheduled a hearing for Feb. 24, and staff members have requested witnesses from the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Agency for International Development. House Judiciary Committee staff have also sought unredacted versions of FBI interviews conducted in 2021 with researchers who had worked at the Wuhan institute.

What Comes Next

Intelligence officials cautioned that the Feb. 17 release would not include every document sought by lawmakers. One official said additional materials were still undergoing classification review and would be released in subsequent tranches. The official said ODNI was coordinating with the Justice Department to ensure the release did not interfere with ongoing litigation related to pandemic-era records.

A separate U.S. official said the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology had spent more than 300 analyst hours over the past three weeks scrubbing the documents for source-identifying information. The official said the review had required consultations with Britain's Government Communications Headquarters and Australia's Defence Intelligence Organisation because some reports had been shared through the Five Eyes intelligence partnership.

The Alamo Post first reported on Feb. 4 that Langdon had ordered a 60-day review of pandemic-origin records. A spokesman for ODNI declined to comment for this article.