CIA’s Counter Espionage Department Investigated Unvaccinated Employees, Lawsuit Alleges
The CIA investigated thousands of unvaccinated employees as if they were potential foreign espionage and sabotage threats, a new class action lawsuit alleges.
The CIA investigated thousands of unvaccinated employees as if they were potential foreign espionage and sabotage threats, a new class action lawsuit alleges.
In September 2021, former President Joe Biden mandated that federal employees and contractors receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Shortly after, the CIA’s chief operating officer directed the Counter Espionage Department (CED) to begin investigating employees and contractors who did not comply, the lawsuit alleges.
Former CIA officer James Erdman, who uncovered Langley’s alleged surveillance of its own unvaccinated employees, said in an interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation that he repeatedly pressed CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s office to remove the marks on unvaccinated employees’ personnel files but the director never took action.
“I did everything in my power to get the agency to just fix it. That’s all I wanted. Give us the answer on what happened, and fix it,” Erdman said.
Feds for Freedom — a nonprofit founded by federal employees in 2021 to challenge the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate — announced the new lawsuit on Wednesday. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
“When a government agency uses national security tools to punish the personal medical choices of their employees, it is agency leadership — not the employee — who has crossed the line,” said Feds For Freedom Executive Director Stephanie Weidle in a statement.