EMAIL · 24 September 2021
FW: Readout of contentious HPSCI COVID Origins briefing
Provenance: Forwarded 24 September 2021, 10:50 am · encloses the same 23 September 2021 readout as item 12 · 2 pages.
The morning-after forward of the HPSCI readout, sent onward with a five-word cover note that captures the mood better than the readout itself: "FYI…fun stuff. Morgan says he won’t fire me."
The enclosed readout is the same document as item 12 — the account of the 23 September 2021 HPSCI briefing, the refusal to name consulted experts, and the resulting hostility from members.
The two copies are not identical in one respect: a passage about the minority staffers’ conduct at the pre-brief is redacted in the 2023 copy (item 12) but left open here, and one passage on confidence levels is redacted differently between the two.
Read alongside item 12, this pairing shows the same source document being re-circulated almost two years later, when the question of who should brief Wenstrup came back around.
Item 17 of the ODNI COVID-19 document release of 18 June 2026, held complete and readable in the V.A.D.E.S. archive at DEFROST.WORLD.