WASHINGTON, D.C. — The CIA now believes the COVID-19 virus most likely originated from a lab in China, reflecting a shift among officials from both the Biden and Trump administrations toward the lab leak theory.

The assessment is not based on any new evidence and the CIA said it had “low confidence” in its conclusion, meaning the intelligence behind it is inconclusive. A spokesperson wrote in a statement that the “CIA continues to assess that both research-related and natural origin scenarios of the COVID-19 pandemic remain plausible."

Previous studies have split on whether the coronavirus came from a leak leak—potentially by mistake—or jumped naturally from an animal to humans.

The CIA’s assessment matches the conclusions of the FBI, Department of Energy and the Republican-led House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. The committee dissolved last month after issuing its final report.

“There are a lot of reasons why I wasn't surprised,” former Rep. Brad Wenstrup of Ohio, who chaired the committee, said in an exclusive interview with Spectrum News. “So many of the things that we revealed would add to what they were already starting to see and looking into further. And they saw a lot of nefarious behavior. So yes, I do think that that it made a difference.”

The committee’s report found the Chinese government did not provide the World Health Organization relevant data or DNA samples and tried to obfuscate the committee’s investigation.

“We discovered that China and the CCP were covering up, they were destroying sequences, they were destroying samples,” Wenstrup said. “And they even threatened me. They said it was a ‘grave mistake’ for me to be investigating the origins of COVID.”

Wenstrup added that he hoped new CIA Director John Ratcliffe would declassify and release more information from its investigation.

The origin question has become politicized in the years since the pandemic, with Republicans largely favoring the lab leak theory and Democrats the animal origin theory.

Wenstrup has argued some early assessments pointing to an animal origin were politically motivated, but said the CIA assessment was not.

“To me, COVID was something that should have united America tremendously and not been a political football whatsoever,” he said. “But if someone has a motive, a personal motive and authority to try and drive the narrative in one direction so as to not be blamed for COVID-19 or other reasons in that vein, then that would be the personal political motive, not necessarily just Republican or Democrat.”

Wenstrup pointed out that the CIA completed the new assessment at the behest of now-former CIA Director William Burns, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden. It was declassified on Saturday by the new CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who was appointed by President Donald Trump.

“I think it was important to [[Burns]] to have his conclusions revealed during the transition from his directorship to John Ratcliffe's,” Wenstrup said.

Determining the virus’ true origin would have profound geopolitical implications.

“In the International Court, especially starting with China, there has to be some repercussions and some adjustments made and maybe liability as well,” Wenstrup said. “Certainly people can make that case, especially when you look at how many millions of people died around the world. This is a serious, serious thing.”

Beijing on Monday downplayed the assessment, urging the United States to “stop politicizing and instrumentalizing the issue of origin-tracing.”

The new assessment is not likely to settle the debate on the origins of the virus, which intelligence officials have said will never be known for certain without cooperation from Chinese authorities.